Ascending Chaos

Monday, October 10, 2005

Dutch Favour

And so, courtesy of Holland beating the Czech Republic in another group, England have won a place in the 2006 Soccer World Cup Finals in Germany. I don't say "earned" because that has still to be proven.

It seems so anti-climactic, after all the hype of England needing to win their final 2 group matches and Sven Goran Eriksson's hyperbolic pronouncements of greatness. In the end, it came down to the efforts of a group of men in orange, playing a few hundred miles away. Not an Englishman in sight on the night that England qualified for the World Cup. Of course, not a few of these men in orange play in England, so you could contrive to say that this is an English-made outcome.

Can there be a national side that is more underachieving that England? In the past, I have always thought their aspirations outflanked their abilities. This time around, I think they have genuinely good talent, but are struggling to beat unremarkable teams like Austria and Wales. The team is so much less than the sum of its parts. Is Sven the problem? Or it is the Premiership schedule, or even the Premiership style of play?

One dreads to think what England can do against a middling Latin American team, never mind Brazil and Argentina. I think I shall return to my old policy of writing them off before they even get to a tournament. England's best results in international tournaments (WC 1990 and Euro 1996) have come at times when I was not an active supporter.

Heck, not that England would care whether I support them or not. But it might do my blood pressure some good if I didn't.

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