Is Der Kaiser telling us what we already know?

The fact that we needed to win our last group game as in 1986 and 1990 was not the main reason I felt tension in the build up to the game. I actually found my main concern was getting to see the England vs Slovenia match. I was unable to get out of work until 15 minutes after kick off and I headed straight to the nearest pub to catch the rest of the first half. As I got within sight of the pub I saw a colleague of mine outside and my heart sank as I realised that it was full. Unperturbed, me and my entourage of co-workers headed to the next pub to see if there was any room at the inn.

As we arrived prime seats were still available, but joy was followed immediately by disappointment as we had just missed Defoe’s goal. In the space of minutes though I got into the game and was impressed with England’s attacking football. It only took a couple of minutes after my arrival for Gerrard to place a low shot towards the right hand corner before being palmed wide by Handanovicv. This gave me a sense of optimism that a possible mauling was on the cards. In what followed, England produced a more purposeful performance then in recent games and certainly the best performance since the qualifiers.

However and there is always a however with England. While the country rejoiced with qualification as the final whistle blew the reality of England’s predicament emerged. The yanks injury time goal completely changed the outlook for England.

The pundits have said that to win the world cup you must beat teams such as Germany. Yes that is true, but England are slowly developing confidence in the world cup. A second round tie against Ghana would have offered a stern test, but one where England could have been the victors, setting up a clash against either Uruguay or South Korea in the quarters. Instead we have Germany, then maybe Argentina and then possibly Brazil.

Let’s face the facts; we have progressed to the quarter finals in recent years when we have had average opposition. In 2006 our second round match was against Ecuador, in 2002 it was Denmark, in 1990 it was Belgium and in 1986 Paraguay. In 1998 as we all know it was that epic against Argentina and while I would like to see a similar performance, I sense there will be a similar result against Germany.

So England’s lack of potency up front has seriously dented any chance of further progression. I hope to be proved wrong, but Germany look slick in their passing and attacking for such a young side. The fact that England has a talented bunch of individuals does not disguise the fact that we lack coherence as a team.

I hope Der Kaiser is wrong on Sunday and the boys do us proud. If we should lose though, let us as a nation try and lower our expectations and shelve the video highlights of 1966 until after we win a world cup again.