World Cup Reality Check

As the world cup was about to kick off for England yesterday the BBQ was fired up, jovial conversation was all around the garden and anticipation for the competition ahead was generally positive.

The game started with Steven Gerrard playing like a man possessed and he linked up well with Heskey for the goal. A first win of the world cup for England was on the cards against a work man like USA.

What actually followed was more of the same from England including injuries, needless bookings and of course a keeper howler which was arguably the worst by an England keeper. At least Scott Carson had to deal with a faster ball while Robert Green really had less to deal with after Dempsey’s shot had already bounced on the ground on the way through.

Gerrard, Carragher and Milner all picked up yellow cards. Picking Ledley King backfired and the pace of Jamie Carragher could be a liability to the team after he was skinned by Jozy Altidore. Robert Green saving from Altidore and then the ball ricocheting off the post would have given him some confidence back, but is it enough to stay in the team?

The Americans to be fair are not a bad team overall and what they lack in creativity is made up for by hard work. The US now has a good chance of reaching the second round and possibly the quarter-finals. It is important to remember that the US are ranked 14th in the world so a draw against England ranked 8th is not totally unexpected.

Even in the FIFA all time list England are actually 5th, so based on rankings we are destined for the quarter finals. So when many in the press state that the 1966 team started with a draw, surely the English public cannot be thinking of a world cup final?

Our team is not bad, but they are not great. The England teams of World Cup 90 and Euro 96 were arguably better and certainly more settled. To achieve a semi final again would be a great achievement. But even if we should go out in the quarters again we would at least be consistent in world cups over the last 8 years and should be thankful we at least qualified unlike in 1994.