Different year. Different Tournament. Different Country. Different Players. Same Result.
England brought one of the most gifted teams to a World Cup. Have shown that the team really knows how to play, has specialists in every area of the field. Has one of the most vocal fanbases online and in real life. And have subsequently been knocked out prematurely.
Sound familiar? Well that’s because I’m not talking about any World Cup in particular. I’m talking about just about all of them.
As a matter of fact, no other team has been knockout of the quarter finals of a World Cup more times than England, with 7.
And what will likely make the 2022 elimination sting even more is not only the fact that they outplayed France, the holders, but also that they somehow lost on penalties, even though the match didn’t even go to extra time.
Tough.
Just so we’re all on the same page, this video wasn’t made to pile on to the Three Lions. Not at all- you’re supposed to back your boys.
England on the international stage have certainly improved over the past few tournaments. And the unity around the team is visibly less toxic than it was as recently as the 2000s . But if they want football to come home, there is still a lot of legwork that needs to be done.
Today, I wanted to take some time to dive into the timeline of England at the World Cup. The highs, and more frequently, the lows. In doing so, perhaps we’ll be able to understand why there is so much scrutiny around this nation when it comes to the biggest stage and what’s caused them to fall short so often.
Table of Contents
England vs FIFA
With that being said, will it ever come home again?
The England National team is truly a curious case. As you can see, this is a long video. There are very many places that we can start from with this one. But because I’m feeling controversial, perhaps a good place to start is with “English arrogance”.
I’m aware that the “coming home” phrase may seem annoying to some. But there are several reasons that explain its legitimacy. Football as a sport has existed independently in several cultures across the globe for thousands of years. But it was in 1863, when The English Football Association was formed, that modern football in it’s current form was officially born . Not only that, but the first ever FIFA recognised international football match was played between England and Scotland in 1872.
The more you know.
FIFA was formed in 1904, but the first World Cup was only held in 1930. Uruguay both hosted and came out on top in Edition number 1.
England, however, did not participate. And the reasons for that are aplenty.
One of the main reason was that England, Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland had withdrawn from the organisation after taking issue with FIFA’s definition of amateurs and payments to those players.
There were also safety concerns regarding rowdy Latin American fans– which is ironic, but we’ll get into why a bit later. It was only 18 years later in 1946 that they became members once more.
But make no mistake. There was much more to the Brits hesitancy to embrace the global side of things.
There was a superiority complex amongst the highers ups in the FA that propagated for a good chunk of the late 1800s and early 1900s.
As the official inventor of modern football and as an absolute juggernaut of the game, they felt there was no need to fraternize with any country outside of the UK, really.
If you don’t believe me just listen to this quote from FA executive at the time, Charles Sutcliffe, when explaining how he felt about giving equal voting rights to all FIFA members:
“I don’t care a brass farthing about the improvement of the game in France, Belgium, Austria or Germany.
The FIFA does not appeal to me.
An organisation where such football associations as those of Uruguay and Paraguay, Brazil and Egypt, Bohemia and Pan Russia, are co-equal with England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland seems to me to be the case of magnifying the midgets.”
That’s right. It’s one of those extracts that you think might have some redeeming qualities to it, but it only gets worse and worse.
And just in case you were wondering, this guy was also the president of the English football league and held similar opinions when it came to foreign players playing in England.
“I feel the idea of bringing foreigners to play in league football is repulsive to the clubs, offensive to British players and a terrible confession of weakness in the management of a club,”
Sounds like a nice guy!
And he wasn’t alone in this line of thought. England thought themselves to be a footballing superpower back then. Which is fair- because they were. In fact, they were still frequently asked to return to FIFA, even after consistently undermining the organisation. You needed England if you wanted your global tournament to be taken seriously. You might not like it, but that’s a fact.
All the same, the term “English arrogance”, pertaining to football was essentially born out of quotes and mentalities like those of Sutcliffe.
Disappointment, Depression, Disaster
Moving along. England’s first world Cup ever was in 1950- hosted in Brazil. It was also quite possibly the most embarrassing one in English World Cup history.
Favoured to do well in this edition, the mighty English beat Chile in their first match and went on to lose 1-0 to the US of A.
This was a shock.
When people picked up the newspaper the following days, apparently people thought it was a misprint and that the score was actually 10-1 to England.
It was not.
And because England are the luckiest team on the planet, USA’s team was mostly made up of British expats and winning goal was scored by, Joe Gaetjens , a man that washed dishes for a living.
A loss to Spain in the final group match saw them down and out.
The 1954 World Cup was, albeit more delayed, also a disappointment. A Quarter Finals exit this time. 1958 was the group stages. However, that one has some incredibly upsetting weight to it. England, of course, had a strong squad. However, the Munich Air Disaster occurred in the February of that year.
A devastating plane crash that claimed the lives of 23 of the 44 passengers on board. 8 of which were Manchester United players and amongst the very best out there at the time. 4 of those 8, were English internationals. Duncan Edwards, Tommy Taylor, Roger Byrne and David Pegg.
This event sent shockwaves the world over. It touched everyone that heard about it. Football fan or not. And it certainly had a sizeable effect on the English players.
The 62 World Cup wasn’t as disappointing or downright depressing as the last few. A Quarter final exit where the team played some good stuff, before going out thanks to eventual winners, Brazil.
All the same, the expectations around the national team were perhaps far weightier than some thought they should be.
“Everyone in England thinks we have a God given right to win the World Cup.” The words of forward, Johnny Haynes, after being eliminated in 1958.
This is a sentiment that many believe to ring just a truly today as it did back then.
A sentiment that shows that people really just need to lower their expectations. Face reality. It wasn’t gonna happen.
Except for the one time when it did.
Homecoming
Alf Ramsey arrives
In 1963, following the resignation of manager, Walter Winterbottom (great name, by the way), Alfred Ramsey took his place.
And believe me when I say that the phrase legend probably doesn’t do this man justice.
A former player and England international himself and also an extremely sharp footballing mind. Nicknamed “The General”, He lacked any real pace, but was an accurate ball playing defender that knew how to read the game in front of him in a way that not many could.
He played for Spurs over 70 years ago and managed to win the second division in the 49/50 season. He then immediately won the first division in 50/51.
Later, as a manger, and with Ipswich Town, he won the second division in 61, then the first division in 62. He clearly had some sort of special sauce.
Which is exactly why the FA decided that he would be the right man for the big job.
Up to this point, the player selection for the national team was decided upon by a selection committee in the FA. Upon Ramsey’s appointment, he demanded that he receive full control over team selections. His demands were met. And amongst his first actions as manager, he made Bobby Moore captain at only 22 and he declared that quote
“We will win the World Cup” unquote.
A bold prediction. The World Cup was being held in England 3 years following Ramsey’s appointment, sure. But winners of the cup? Many weren’t convinced.
Remember the embarrassing 1-0 loss to the US in the 1950 World Cup that I spoke about earlier? Ramsey was on the pitch that day. This is the same guy that was supposed to lead England to victory, huh?
Nonetheless, the man was clearly a generational leader. Having served in the army during the war, having captain damn near every team he played for as a pro. Having won trophies in unlikely fashion before even taking up the England job. There was no better man to give it a go. And there hasn’t been anyone better ever since.
The 1966 World Cup
The group stages of the 66 World Cup started off well for England. Here’s what the line-up was looking like initially. With the team playing in a 433 throughout the group stages, 2 wins and a draw against France, Mexico and the Uruguay was enough to see them through to the quarter finals.
Disaster struck in the final group match, as Jimmy Greaves, the greatest goal scorer in English topflight history with 357 goals in 516 appearances, was cut down and side-lined.
In a bit of a pickle, Ramsey decided to make a few drastic changes. Instead of looking for a more experienced replacement, he brought in Geoff Hurst as Greave’s replacement. Bold, as there were other, seemingly more obvious choices. And also because Hurst firstly only had a handful of England appearances, and secondly, because he didn’t impress in the warm up matches leading up to the tournament itself. Ultimately, that did not matter, though.
Another change that Ramsey made was scrapping the use of wingers. In an attempt to simply outrun and overwhelm the opposition, hard running midfielders were put into the team and a 442 was adopted. This prompted the press to dub Ramsey’s 1966 England, as the “Wingless Wonders”.
In the midfield, we had Alan Ball, Nobby Stiles, Martin Peters and Bobby Charlton- all traditional midfielders. At the back Bobby Charlton’s older brother- Jack Charlton, Bobby Moore, Ray Wilson and George Cohen. Behind them- Gordan Banks. And at the very front- Jimmy Greaves and Roger Hunt in the groups. But eventually Geoff Hurst and Roger Hunt throughout the knockouts.
Argentina were up first in the quarter finals. Reportedly a violent match which saw words and boots fly in all directions. The most controversial of words were that of Ramsey himself.
Hurst scored the winner, sending England through. But at the final whistle, in the middle of a shirt swap between England’s George Cohen and Argentina’s Alberto Gonzalez, Ramsey grabbed Cohen’s shirt, refusing to let him swap it.
In fact, he was so angry with Argentina’s roughhousing that he referred to them as animals directly after the match. This was obviously not well received in Argentina and the whole of South America for that matter. Among other actions, many have referred to this string of events as a major contributor to the souring of opinions of the English in Latin America. In terms of football, at least.
England followed up this victory with a 2-1 win against Portugal. A Bobby Charlton brace proved more decisive than a Eusebio penalty. Eusebio, who was the top scorer of that editions, with 9 goals, and also the reigning Ballon D’or holder.
England then faced off against a familiar foe in the finals. West Germany. This was not going to be easy. And somehow, it looked like Ramsey was making it harder on himself. Jimmy Greaves was fit and available for the final, to the relief of the host nation. But Ramsey decided to stick with Hurst.
“Never change a winning team”.
Hurst scored a hattrick. A Hattrick in the World Cup final – the only time that’s ever happened by the way- against WEST GERMANY. No surprise that he is now referred to as Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst.
Now, I feel I do have to note that Hurst’s second goal was and still is highly controversial. The game was in extra time after finishing 2-2 in regular time. Alan Ball crossed it into Hurst’s path, his shot hit the cross bar, bounced down and the goal was given. Today, It’s widely believed that, indeed, the ball did not cross the line.
Several studies, re-enactments and so on have proved just that. But that was 56 years ago- at this point, it’s spilled milk. And Germany would ultimately get their revenge, in any case. A few times actually.
Sir Alf Ramsey and Sir Bobby Charlton also made their way into knighthood. Bobby Charlton, who won the Golden Ball for the 66 World Cup, as well as the 1966 Ballon D’or. Very creative names we have for these awards, I must say.
4-2 to England. It was home. Football was home.
“A Team of Drunks and Thieves”
“You did it, Alf. We’d have been nothing without you.”
Midfielder Nobby Stiles said this in 1966. Makes sense coming from him. After all, the English FA pressured Ramsey into dropping him after some violent conduct against France. Ramsey refused and Stiles was pivotal in England’s win.
Ramsey is an icon. Statistically the greatest manager to ever manage England. The only stat I’m taking into consideration is this one, by the way.
Nevertheless, all good things must come to an end.
England travelled to Mexico, ready to defend their title four years later
They weren’t as dominant this time around, though. And the events that followed indicated that fate was not on their side.
Okay, so this is a very spicy story that I cannot believe I did not know about until working this video. The general rundown is that in the lead up to the 1970 edition, England travelled to Columbia to train and acclimatize to local conditions.
Captain fantastic, Bobby Moore, was heavily accused of allegedly shoplifting a valuable bracelet from the gift shop at the hotel they were staying at. The accusations against him were made by an assistant shop keeper as well as another local bystander.
But, here’s the thing- no evidence of any kind was ever found. Moore even offered to have himself searched immediately after leaving the shop and nothing was found on him.
But the accusers were convinced of his wrongdoings . After a few days, he was formally arrested and detained for four days, as the squad had to travel to Mexico to set up camp. Then he was simply released, on the basis of insufficient evidence and went on to put out some his greatest performances with England ever.
They were unfortunately knocked by, you guessed it, West Germany, in the quarter finals. A 3-2 loss that required extra time.
Also Gordon Banks had food poisoning the day before this match, with backup keeper, Peter Bonetti, stepping in and making a few costly errors.
Also, centre forward Jeff Astle, had a fear of flying . To settle himself down on England’s flight to Mexico, he had one too many and ended up needing help getting off the plane. This prompted a local Mexican newspaper to print a headline labelling England as “a team of drunks and thieves”.
And if you thought we were finished recapping England’s controversial footballing relationship with Spanish speaking countries, we’re nowhere near done.
But just circling back to the Moore incident, there have been several explanations laid out for what actually went down. All of which are merely theories, because nothing was ever proven. Some say it was a prank gone horribly wrong by one of the younger English players. Some believe it was an elaborate scheme to shake up the English squad by targeting arguably their most imposing figure. And then, a theory that a lot of people believe to be the closest to the truth- this was a common extortion trick pulled by either the hotel or some conman: accuse a rich, powerful or public figure- better if they’re a foreigner- and demand a large chunk of change to make it all go away.
A interesting theory. Also one that is backed up by former Botafogo coach, Joao Saldanha in defence of Moore. According to him, back when he coached the Brazilian club side some years ago and they stayed in the very same hotel, an attempt was made to plant jewellery on his travelling party and demand hush money.
And the fact that the accusations from the witnesses of the alleged crime were riddled with inconsistencies only served to back up this theory. Also apparently the shop assistant fled the country soon after the whole thing went down.
Something was fishy. But, I guess we’ll never know.
Okay, the tinfoil hat is coming off. For now. Anyway, that was my round about way of saying that England did not retain the title.
Even further, disappointing performances from England in the 72 Euros, as well as failure to even qualify for the 1974 World Cup spelled the end of Ramsey’s reign.
Justified or not, it’s widely viewed that his sacking was handled poorly. A clash in personalities between him and the FA higher ups led to constant internal friction. Failure to qualify for the World Cup offered a fantastic excuse for dismissal.
And just like that, he was gone.
Hooligans
What has followed over the 48 years since 1974 for England can probably best be described as despair. Disjointed and destitute, with the odd feeling of delight.
Don Revie
In 1978, again they failed to qualify for the World Cup. However, if you’ve made it this far in the video, you already there was a scandal in middle of all of this.
Don Revie, England’s full-time manager after Ramsey, was already on shakey terms with the FA before even being appointed. The man is probably Leeds United’s greatest manager ever and basically made them a winning team out of nothing.
But with England, bad performances and even worse rapport were the main issue here. Everyone knew his days were numbered.
In 1977, he sent the squad to South America for a friendly with. He did not join them, as he claimed he would be scouting Italy, an upcoming opponent in the ‘78 World cup qualifiers.
He was actually hashing out the final details for his next job- Manager of the United Arab Emirates.
He never worked in English football again. (pic)
Hooligans
The 80s was a very contentious and controversial decade for English and UK football. By this point, football hooliganism was widespread amongst the biggest clubs in the territory. Several instances of fans being banned or even convicted, and teams being kicked out of competitions, as a result of said fan activity were rife in this decade.
This translated to local games, and away games. Foreign away games. I think you see where I’m going with this. This was a minority, of course, but it’s usually the vocal minority that defines public opinion.
The reputations of travelling British fans in foreign countries in international tournaments were just bad. There was the 1982 World Cup qualifiers where riots broke out in a match vs Switzerland in Basel. England went 2-0 down and travelling fans were pictured stabbing locals as fights broke out across the stadium . Swiss pubs and stores were looted and had their windows smashed in before and after the match. The ill-fated game was given the name “The battle of Basel”. For good reason, it seems.
The World Cup itself, held in Spain and which England did qualify for, wasn’t terrible on the pitch. A second-round exit. But fights involving not only English fans but the entirety of the UK were afoot.
Argentina and The United Kingdom were waging war over sovereignty of the Falkland Islands in 1982. A bloody war that had casualties in the hundreds on either side. Gibralter, another British territory, was also undergoing it’s own perpetual dispute over governance between the UK and Spain.
And then, on the purely football side of things, Sir Alfred Ramsay’s reference to Argentina as animals all the way back in 66 was still widely in circulation. As I said, the entirety of Latin America, as well as every Spanish speaker took this as an insult.
And at the onset of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, the British players themselves felt something needed to be done. A year prior to that, the Heysel Disaster caused English clubs to be banned from all European competitions indefinitely. Something which the tournament organisers were painfully aware of.
An open letter was written to British public by England, Scotland and Northern Irelands Captains and was published in a popular local Mexican newspaper. It was also handed to all travelling fans as part of a leaflet. I’m gonna read you all an extract. It’s a bit long, but bear with me:
“Thank you for joining us in our great World Cup journey to Mexico. We hope we can give you the results and performances your loyalty deserves.
We know that the vast majority of you have no intention of doing anything in Mexico except enjoying the football, the sun and the hospitality of our Mexican hosts.
To those few who might be tempted to spoil it for the rest, we say, ‘Please give us a break.’
Remember, you are ambassadors for Britain just as much as we are. Don’t do anything that’s going to make our job harder. Together, we can make the whole of Britain proud of us.”
The fact that this was even necessary speaks volumes.
The tournament itself wasn’t a terrible display by the English. But it still wasn’t enough, sadly.
They succumbed to a 2-1 loss to Argentina, as fate would have it. In this match, one the most Controversial and one of the Greatest goals was scored. Two goals, by the way. By the Golden boy, Diego Maradona. A winding solo effort and a goal curtesy of the hand of God himself.
In Diego Maradona’s memoir, Yo Soy El Diego published 14 years later in 2000, he stated that this was revenge.
Somehow we blamed the English players for everything that had happened, for everything that the Argentinian people had suffered.
I know that it sounds crazy but that’s the way we felt.
The feeling was stronger than us: we were defending our flag, the dead kids, the survivors.
He was of course referring to Islas Malvinas. The Spanish name for the Falkland Islands.
Tears
It may seem like I’ve been painting a grim picture of England’s footballing reputation on and off the pitch over the late 1900s. Because I was. It was bad.
But that was about to change.
The early 90s did a lot to inject positivity into not only the views of British and English fans by foreigners, but also the views of the English national team by English people.
By 1990, England had formed a strong squad. They were managed by Bobby Robson, who was going into his last tournament before returning to club management. And they also had Paul Gascoigne. Who is crazy. Also crazy good.
This was the Three Lions greatest World Cup performance since they won it, 24 years prior. And they won the fair play award- having received the lowest number of yellows per match and no red cards.
They made it to the semi-finals and showed a lot of heart in getting themselves there. But alas, they were eliminated on penalties, by the eventual winners- West Germany.
Paul Gascoigne cried after being booked in the semis, as it meant he would miss out on the final if England progressed. The image of him shedding those tear- realising just how much this meant to him- it triggered something in the support that had been lacking for quite some time: hope.
“It was better than Baywatch. And for the generation of men and women who were roughly the same age as you, it was some kind of miracle. You looked like one of us, but played like one of Them: Pelé, Cruyff, Maradona, the greatest of the greats. If you could do that, then surely anything was possible.”
This is Cole Morten, of the Independent, had to say about Gazza’s performance and passion.
Sadly, though, this hope was not built upon in the slightest. Like they had done 20 years prior, England failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. And then in 98, they suffered a round of 16 exit to Argentina.
And again, some intriguing talking points from this result. Glen Hoddle, who was once a very talented player himself was the England manager come this edition. A bit of flash, a bit of sleek trickery and creativity. However, there is a case to be made that he was not appreciated nearly enough by England, considering what he offered.
I’m gonna call back to Sir Alfred Ramsey’s wingless wonders here. Remember them? The 66 team that favoured hard running instead of intricate play? Well, that mentality propagated for decades upon decades and many believe that that has played a large role in England’s poor showings since. A failure to adapt and try something different- it’s not like the ways of the old were working, you know.
Hoddle left the likes of Le Tissier at home for the 98 World Cup and only gave Steve McManaman, another creative player, a total of 17 minutes of playing time. Gascoigne was also left at home- but mostly because he was caught eating Kebabs and drinking late at night, only a week before the final selection.
David Beckham was scapegoated- certainly not for the last time in an England shirt- as he got himself a red card after some Hollywood levels of play acting from Diego Simeone.
And you know what? If it works, it works
Different day. Same result
The turn of the century brought with it, arguably England’s greatest collective unit ever. On the domestic scene, Premier League clubs were dominating European competitions.
In the 10 years between 2000 and 2010, English sides featured in the European cup final 6 times. With an all-English final too. Ironically, that all English final was in 2008. The same year that England failed to qualify for the Euros. But, this video is about the World Cup.
Regardless, fortunes in the World Cup pretty much remained consistent. England bring a great team, only for them to fall apart due some sort of drama or freak event.
2002- England strike first in the quarter finals against Brazil , only for Brazil to overturn the deficit and for Ronaldinho to score a free kick he had no right scoring. David Seeman was basically in Brazil’s half that’s far off his line he was. Also Dinho got himself a red card in the 57th minute, but England failed to capitalize.
2006- Another quarter finals defeat. Wayne Rooney didn’t like the idea of Ricardo Carvalho having kids, so gave him a bit of a stomp (which I think was unintentional, but that up to interpretation). The Portuguese players crowd the ref, with Rooney’s Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo leading the disgruntled crowd. Rooney’s not a fan of what’s going down and get physical with Ronaldo. He is then sent off and England lose on Penalties.
2010- Round of 16 this time. Germany. Again. The Germans surge ahead to a 2-0 lead, but the momentum shifts heavily and England score 2 goals in under a minute and bring the game level. Only issue was that the second was disallowed. Why? Negligence . Lampard struck a fierce shot off the crossbar, the ball clearly bounces off it and crosses the line, but the goal was not given. Life really does come full circle sometimes, you know.
England were very clearly on top at this point and I remember watching this match. If that goal was allowed, who knows what could’ve happened. Anyway, they were visibly deflated after this ruling and went on to lose 4-1.
2014- their worst finish ever. Group sages. Knocked out after losing their first two matches.
All of these exits and their accompanying performances were unique. And also uniquely embarrassing. There were, of course, common themes over the years when it came to why these losses occurred.
Where is the unity in the squad? Of course in reference to the fact that several players have admitted to favouring club football and the bonds they have with their domestic teammates over the national team. Why does the midfield lack any sort of creativity? Why is that a functioning midfield can’t be produced with Frank Lampard, Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole and Owen Hargreaves at your disposal? Why Is Wayne Rooney not scoring? Why does every England keeper always make a high pressured silly mistake?
Will. It. Ever. Come. home?
Again, the hope had gone out the window. But maybe. Just maybe, things would soon be different.
Waistcoat
Allardyce sting
A group stage exit in 2014 must have felt like closest thing to relegation that the English FA higher up could think. An embarrassing exit from the 2016 Euros against Iceland in the Round of 16 didn’t help much either.
So, who do you call when your club is in a pickle and the threat of relegation looms.
Good ol’ Sam Allardyce. And my man did his thing. He ended his national team tenure with a 100% win record. He only managed one match and got dismissed after 2 months on the job, but why would you even mention that?. Shortly after taking over, he was secretly recorded while speaking to a group of Asian investors. Expect, they were actually undercover telegraph journalists.
He said a lot of things in these meetings. Nothing particularly illegal, but as the England manager, you really can’t be caught saying stuff like this.
Among other things, he said the FA’s billion-pound revamp of Wembley was a waste of money. He mocked Roy Hodgson for his lack of personality. He claimed that there were several ways to circumvent the FA’s rules on third party ownership of image rights.
“You can still get around it. I mean obviously the big money’s here.”
Wild. He has to go, blud.
2018 World cup
Gareth Southgate was up next following this debacle and was looking to rewrite his own fortunes with the national team. A man that was in England’s 1996 Euros squad. The same player that missed the crucial pen that left England eliminated that time around.
And he did a lot to get his team on the front foot. In 2018, England put out their joint best performance at a World Cup since winning in 66, by matching their exploits from 1990. A semi-final appearance. And I guess there were a few reasons for why England did so well:
Recognising that the midfield was certainly England weakest area, Southgate focussed on defence and having options in deep areas. 5 players at the back meant that they were not short of cover when under threat. In front of the defence was a holding midfielder and 4 attackers adept at the counter.
The Attackers were also all in central areas and pressed relentlessly out of possession. This helped with the midfield battles that they so poorly lost in recent times. There was also the increase in set piece proficiency- 9 of the 12 goals scored in Russia came from a dead ball situation.
And then, perhaps the most important changes were a visible increase in 2 things. 1- the levels of accountability present amongst each player. And 2- how unified the team was. Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea- from the outside looking in, it looked like these players were actually friends and wanted to be around each other. Surprise, in a team sport, that’s important.
Even though it didn’t come home, sprits were high once more. Waistcoats were flying off the shelves like hotcakes, it was a good moment.
2022 World Cup
England went a step further in the following major competition. Their first ever finals appearance in the Euros. This was met with a loss to the Italians on pens. But again, there was a lot to be hopeful for.
And with the emergence of a crop of extremely gifted players, there was reason to buy into the hype.
Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Phil Foden and more. Things were looking promising. Suddenly, the midfield was arguably their strongest asset. Players like Marcus Rashford, Jack Grealish and Trent Alexander Arnold were bench options.
6-1 against Iran in their 2022 World Cup opener raised expectations even more. Some very calm and composed showings from the guys here. Especially from Jude Beliingham, who is somehow 19.
The remainder of their group stage matches weren’t as dazzling- failure to take control left them vulnerable on a few occasions. But the job was completed in the end- No harm done . Senegal in the round of 16 was another case where the team was looking fragile in the beginning and grew into the match. A 3-0 score line was deserved, but Senegal will likely feel hard done by after their early showing.
France in the quarter finals is where things get a bit sticky. I didn’t expect England to play with as much authority as they did in large portions of this match. Against the reigning champions no less. But they did.
But knockout football is about moments and France took theirs. Even after being awarded a penalty in the dying minutes of regular time, they could only watch as the French celebrated a 2-1 victory. England out in the quarter finals. Again.
Hope?
It’s become customary for England to fall short at major tournaments at this point. After all, the team has only won 1 major tournament in it’s existence.
To be entirely fair, the vast majority teams haven’t even come close to doing that. But many teams can’t claim to be the inventors of modern football, nor do they boast the richest, most watched and most followed football league on the planet.
You can’t sugar coat it- anything but number 1 for a nation of this stature should be viewed as a disappointment.
Much has been said about Gareth Southgate’s tactics, or rather lack thereof. Some of it is justified in my eyes .
His substitutions and game management is rarely inspiring. But people have gone a bit overboard at times. Yeah, maybe Rashford should have come on instead of Sterling and maybe the subs and change of shape should’ve come sooner. But let’s not forget that a penalty was missed.
And this isn’t to dog on Kane or anything. It’s just a small illustration of how the scapegoat mentality is being propagated already.
In any case, apart from all that, there is still a lot to be hopeful for if you’re an England supporter. A new golden generation is here and very many of the players I mentioned above will be in their mid-20s come the next world cup. They will only get better and likely only become more fluid. Time will tell.
Before we wrap this one up, I want to circle back to the question posed at the start- will it ever come home? Honestly? I think so. I think it must at some point, right?
Maybe I’m optimistic. Maybe I’m deluded. Who knows. They have the talent and the infrastructure. Let’s see if these can someday convert into results.