20 years ago I’d been stirred up with the prospect of an exciting 2006 World Cup and did a bit of blogging about it while we were still in the tournament. I found this on an old hard drive a few years ago so I must have saved it from whatever blog I had at the time, or wrote it in a document before posting it, rather than writing on the fly.
With this post I’ve left the text as is, terrible writing intact. I have got Claude to run over it and tidy up spelling of player names, formatting and punctuation so at least it’s kind of readable now. I’m posting it here for prosperity.
World Cup 2006
A fan’s diary — June to September 2006
14 June 2006
Is it just me, or are other people feeling a little uneasy about the politics surrounding Rooney and our performance so far in this World Cup?
I’m sick of hearing about the squabble between Man Utd and the FA over playing him. The guy’s fit, so let him play — unless a doctor says otherwise. And stop talking nonsense that we have to play him in this World Cup or we don’t have a chance. I bet the other England players really appreciate hearing that.
We played pretty poorly against Paraguay, which makes me think there’s going to have to be an element of luck on our side to progress beyond the group stages. With Poland looking likely to be out of the running after losing their second game tonight, I suspect we’ll end up playing Ecuador if we top our group — and those boys put on a good show the other day. They’ve trained at altitude and obviously deal with the heat a lot better than we do.
I’m also thinking tomorrow’s game is not going to be anything like the walk in the park a lot of fans are expecting. But I’m sure Sven will have his excuses ready if we perform poorly — even if we win — after we scrape a goal and then hang back defensively for eighty minutes, as we always seem to these days.
I’m well aware that club football is nothing like playing for your country, but how I’d love to see the national team play a system similar to how West Ham approached last season. Don’t concentrate so much on holding the ball in our own area — concentrate more on passionate, exciting football where you’re going for goals and giving the other team a game. England are too predictable. Although we may fill stadiums with these drab, low-scoring victories, we’re hardly the team most people would choose to watch if they wanted an exciting game with goals, pressing and attacking play.
Drop some of the man-to-man marking and play more long balls to exploit the players up front who can capitalise on the quality and accuracy of Beckham. If we’re compromising on defence, so what? I’d rather win 4-2 than 1-0 any day of the week.
Considering how poorly Owen seems to be playing at the moment, it suggests that either he’s a damp squib who maybe should have been left behind, or that our style of play is so predictable that opponents can lock him out of the game with ease.
As for bringing a 17-year-old kid with no Premier League experience — don’t even get me started. But the choices have been made and we have to work with what we have. So bring Walcott and Lennon on tomorrow, leave a couple of the regulars out ahead of the Sweden game, and give the kids a fighting chance to shine. If it’s not working after 70 minutes, change it. But they’re here — use them.
Owen Hargreaves. Why? I’m sure he has his uses — or some kind of leverage over Sven — but he doesn’t strike me as that impressive a player. I’d never put him on the pitch ahead of Jamie Carragher under any circumstances. That said, if we go to penalties he could be useful as a late sub. He’s already proved in Euro 2004 that he’s got the nerve to step up and take one, which I’ll give him credit for.
Final thought on the World Cup for tonight: the England job once Sven steps down. The FA have hired themselves a yes-man, pure and simple — especially given that Martin O’Neill made himself available and was interviewed, and that Sam Allardyce was also considered. But O’Neill would want to do it his way — which is to be applauded — and Allardyce would tell the FA where to go if they tried to influence him. So they got McLaren, who I’m sure is a nice enough bloke, but doesn’t have the spine for the job.
My vote would have been for Big Sam, but it’s too late now. No doubt the issue will raise its head again when we crash out of Euro 2008 and McLaren gets the old heave-ho.
16 June 2006
Trinidad & Tobago played pretty well yesterday, I thought. We deserved to score earlier and win the game, which we did. It was good to see Rooney come on, even if he didn’t do much. At least the boy’s on the pitch again — and he doesn’t look scared to put his foot in, which is a big bonus.
Owen is still a squib. I’d seriously drop him, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s no longer automatic first choice after the tournament if he doesn’t improve. I imagine Newcastle are also looking at their £17 million, £120,000-a-week investment and wondering how to move him on without losing a fortune.
Aaron Lennon looked good again. He’s the safer bet of the two youngsters — two years of Premier League experience and he looks confident. I doubt we’ll actually see Walcott play unless he gets a run-out against Sweden, where the result matters a little less.
On the subject of the Sweden game: I’m hoping the team are thinking strategically. I’m not suggesting playing for a loss to avoid Germany, but the situation could be used to our advantage. We’ll know the final group picture before kick-off on Tuesday, so why not take a few risks, give the youngsters a run, rest Gerrard, Beckham and Lampard, and try something new? If it goes wrong, we face Ecuador. If it pays off, we’re up against Germany but we’ve found an alternative formation for emergencies.
Just my ramblings — I’m not as cautious as Sven with his big-money Real Madrid offer waiting. But we are an uninspiring England side at the moment. Even Lampard is hitting the ball off-target. We’ve got the superb Gerrard keeping us going and arguably one of the best defenders in the world in John Terry. If Terry isn’t automatic first choice above Sol Campbell after his display yesterday, I’d be furious. And then there’s Joe Cole — the player with so much promise — who is now living up to all of it.
I’d love to say “I think we can win this”, but I want to see a performance like the 5-1 thrashing of Germany in 2001 before I’d have the confidence to say it.
18 June 2006
Wonderful performance by Ghana against the Czech Republic. The Czechs had been marked as the best team from the first round of group games after their display against the USA, and they’ve also got the oldest squad — which I always think counts for experience. Anyway, Ghana pulled them apart. A goal disallowed, a missed penalty, and in and out of their penalty area for almost the entire second half. How they only won 2-0 is beyond me. Cracking game to watch as well.
Portugal predictably went through but didn’t look very impressive. Meanwhile, a spirited comeback by the USA earned them a deserved 1-1 draw against Italy, giving them an outside chance of progressing. They have just one point while the other teams all have three, but with one match to play nobody is mathematically out of it yet — unlike most other groups, where the big nations have pretty much already qualified.
One more thing before I go off to contemplate another day of beer and barbecue: our group is not settled either. I’ve said before that England’s last match will dictate whether we play Ecuador or Germany next, but the issue may yet be decided by Sweden. Paraguay are done for — two losses, no points, and they can’t catch us or Sweden even with a win. But Trinidad and Tobago is a different story. They have a point from their draw with Sweden and still have Paraguay to play. If they win that convincingly enough, and we beat Sweden, Trinidad could go through at Sweden’s expense. I’m sure Sweden fans have already thought about this, and they’ll give us a harder game than some expect. But — nothing against Sweden — just for the underdog factor, wouldn’t it be something to see Trinidad come through? They were the real underdogs of the group, and a lot of people — myself included — would say they’d earned it.
21 June 2006
England v Sweden
Where to start with Tuesday’s game against Sweden…
Owen? Learn to jump. We took a gamble bringing you along in the first place, especially alongside the also-injured Rooney and Walcott — who it’s now blindingly obvious Sven has no intention of playing at all. Why weren’t you a little more careful intercepting that pass? It’s not as if you were being tackled, yet you still manage to twist your knee and put yourself out for six months. Just sit back and take the £120,000 a week Newcastle are still going to have to pay you. Considering how little you’ve contributed in this World Cup, it’s unlikely we’ll miss you.
Star player: Joe Cole, no question. Played his heart out for the entire game and was always running at them. Never mind the Swede’s baffling decision to go defensive in the second half — this lad was up for winning the game and you couldn’t fault him.
Rooney got pulled off because he looked shattered, which is perfectly understandable. But he was up for it and clearly hated coming off — as his reaction showed. You can’t fault his commitment or the fear he puts into opposition defenders. As for Gerrard — well, we’ve all said it hundreds of times. He is an exceptional player. When he strikes one of those long shots in, there’s a million England fans in raptures.
Hargreaves did well too. He went out to prove a point, played the full game, and probably earned himself a bit more respect than he’s had up to now. Same goes for Crouch — I’ve never quite understood him in an England shirt, going back to his QPR days, but he showed some important flexibility and did some useful work.
Sol Campbell — I’ve struggled with him since those well-documented strops earlier in the year. How you can be depressed on £80,000 a week because a younger player has come in and is playing better than you is beyond me. That said, he did earn his chance yesterday and made some important defensive interventions. Maybe his England days aren’t quite over, even if John Terry is by far the superior defender now.
As for Eriksson — just go. You clearly have no real understanding of how to get the best out of English players. We have an attacking squad and yet time and again you try to grab a goal and then sit deep and soak up everything thrown at us. The Sweden game proved it perfectly — a team we should comfortably beat, and we let them back in twice because we took our foot off the gas. We’ve seen it so many times. Remember Brazil? 1-0 up, Brazil down to ten men. And you threw it away because you had no strategy for what to do with an advantage. Sam Allardyce or Martin O’Neill should have your job. I’d take 6-3 over 1-0 any day of the week.
So now we face Ecuador — and I’m apprehensive. They’re fitter than us, I’d bet money on it. It’s a game we can win, but what comes after? We haven’t been properly tested yet. After Ecuador we’re looking at Holland, Argentina or Portugal. And because Sven brought Walcott instead of a proven striker, we have no real back-up for Owen. So it’s Crouch and Rooney. If one of them goes down, we’re having to reshuffle the whole formation — and how much have we actually practised that?
I’m not a huge Defoe fan, but I agree with the vast majority of England supporters who think he should be in the squad. At least he’s experienced. Walcott isn’t going to see any action in the knockout stages, so he might as well go home.
I hope we can get past Ecuador convincingly for a morale boost, and I’d love to see the players ignore Sven’s instructions and actually go out to win a game properly. But I’m apprehensive. If we get lucky and go through, I can see us going out in the quarter-finals again.
Let’s hope I’m wrong.
26 June 2006
England v Ecuador
Still not impressed with the England team. Nice to see Beckham put the ball in the net again, even if he did throw up immediately afterwards. What was all that about?
I’m still questioning the Swede’s tactics. Why was he substituting Joe Cole — the best player on the pitch — to bring on Downing? Maybe he was trying to run down the clock, but it felt too early for that. And yet again, the moment we scored, we went into defensive mode and tried to hold a 1-0 lead. That is not going to work against the better opposition we now have to face.
Also — if another commentator starts going on about penalties when we’re only seven minutes into the first half, I’m going to lose my mind. We all know England’s history in shoot-outs. There’s absolutely no need to bring it up before anything has actually happened. The only recent competitive shoot-out success I can recall was against Spain. It makes me furious.
Now we have Portugal, who also came through 1-0 but against better opposition. They’ll be much tougher than Ecuador — who, credit to them, held themselves well — and we need to drop this defensive mindset, because Portugal will bring the game to us. Two of their players are suspended for this match and Ronaldo is out, which helps, but I consider this the real test of our World Cup ambitions.
On the bright side: after watching the extraordinary Mexico v Argentina game the other night, I’m relieved we didn’t face either of them. Mexico were outstanding. Argentina will be a different class to anyone we’ve faced, and if we somehow get past Portugal, I suspect it’ll be Argentina waiting in the semis, not Brazil.
Fingers crossed for Saturday — though I should mention I had the bright idea of playing a kickabout with mates before yesterday’s game and landed badly on my left wrist. I think I’ve either pulled something or fractured it. Ouch.
1 July 2006
England v Portugal
Don’t know where to start with yesterday’s quarter-final. Actually, yes I do. Cristiano Ronaldo. That man is a disgrace to the game. We’ve seen it at Man Utd — throwing himself to the ground without the slightest contact to win free kicks — but he’s not even subtle about it. Provoking a reaction and then screaming at the referee to send someone off is contemptible.
Portuguese fans will be celebrating, I imagine, but perhaps quietly reflecting on how their semi-final place was earned. And possibly ashamed at the behaviour of one of their own.
Real Madrid awaits you, Mr Drama Queen. I suspect you’ll be keen to get there before the new season starts and you have to share a dressing room with Rooney again. David Beckham might have a few things to say to you when you arrive as well.
On to the positives. Ten-man England played better than eleven-man England — I’m not entirely sure how that happened, but it did. Crouch played well while he was on, but without someone alongside him to play off, he was wasted as a target man. Hargreaves was my man of the match. Lennon did well when he came on for Joe Cole.
And so we’re done with Eriksson. I’d like to think McLaren will be better, but I doubt it. He’s the yes-man the FA wanted, pure and simple.
How was the holiday, by the way, Theo Walcott? It’s not your fault — I know that — but you simply should never have been there. Defoe should have been on that plane.
Off you go to Real Madrid, Eriksson, and enjoy the millions. Once you start playing your defensive, results-inhibiting football there, the Spanish fans — who expect entertainment from a club of that stature — will make their feelings known very quickly. We’re well rid of you.
So, roll on Euro 2008. I doubt we could ever be so unlucky as to have both Gerrard and Lampard miss penalties in a shoot-out again. Here’s hoping.
And as for that Argentinian referee — don’t even start me. Carragher scored, so you made him retake it. Shame on you. Bet if he’d missed, you wouldn’t have offered him another go.
2 July 2006
Germany for the World Cup final, then. I haven’t seen them play the cynical football that Portugal and Italy have served up this year, and I genuinely feel France will be outclassed in the semi-final. I respect how they beat Brazil, but going up against the host nation, who are currently a goal-scoring machine, they don’t stand a chance.
Did you see the penalty shoot-out against Argentina? The Argentines — not a team known for bottling big moments — were all over the place. The Germans? Four players up, four goals, ruthless efficiency. They’ve clearly been practising. I’d have been genuinely terrified if we’d faced them in a shoot-out.
5 July 2006
So, ignoring the fact that my predictions for the World Cup winner have been completely wrong — am I a bad person for running around my living room cheering at the sight of Ronaldo in tears after France knocked Portugal out?
I’m no France fan, but I wanted them to win that one. And true to form, the Portuguese were diving all over the place trying to win free kicks throughout. Ronaldo was the worst of them.
Italy v France in the final on Sunday, then. I suspect Italy are the better side. But what do I know?
10 July 2006
They think it’s all over…
Well, it is. Italy the winners. I’d love to know what that Italian player said to Zidane to provoke a headbutt in a World Cup final. It has all the hallmarks of deliberate provocation to get someone sent off — and us English have seen more than enough of that to last a lifetime.
How much satisfaction Italy can truly take from this win remains to be seen. Their domestic league is in crisis amid match-fixing allegations, and the pride in the victory must be somewhat glossed over by the manner of their campaign. I can’t be the only one who remembers the Italian player going down in the penalty area 92 minutes into a 0-0 game against Australia to win a penalty. A disgraceful way to end a tournament for a team who had absolutely earned the right to extra time.
So much of this tournament has been tainted by blatant diving and deliberate card-seeking. I’m not claiming the English are perfect, but I didn’t see any of our players throw themselves down to steal a game. I saw it from Italy, France and Portugal at the very least — and I didn’t watch every game. Notice that all three of those teams reached the semi-finals.
With the instant replay technology available to broadcasters, there’s no reason why the fourth official couldn’t have a monitor to review close calls — not every challenge, just the contentious ones that could affect the result or result in a card. And then: no mercy on the divers. Yellow card, no debate. Dive in the penalty area? Red card, off the pitch. Anyone surrounding the referee to demand a card for an opponent? Book yourself first. Wouldn’t it be something to watch football played on merit, rather than on who can perform the best swan dive?
On that note, the World Cup is over for this blog. Fair play to Germany — both for an impressive tournament performance (I didn’t include them in the cheating list, for good reason) and for being superb hosts. I won’t be so generous the next time we play them, but for now: hats off.
13 September 2006
England Post-World Cup
Well, I haven’t had much to say lately — unless I start thinking about football, at which point I suddenly feel the urge to rant at anyone who happens to be reading this. So: England, post-World Cup.
Three games in under the new manager and things look reasonably positive at first glance. Beating Greece — the reigning European champions, let’s not forget — 4-0, and then winning both Euro 2008 qualifiers. Whether Andorra counts as a proper test is a matter of opinion, but the Macedonia game was certainly a tougher proposition.
A few things have caught my attention. Hargreaves has finally come into his own. I mentioned in earlier posts that he seemed to be gradually justifying his place, and I’ve been proven right. The days of him being booed appear to be well behind him.
The jury is still out on Peter Crouch. I know that’s a hard thing to say given his recent scoring record, but I always consider the quality of opposition when assessing form. A lot of his goals have been scrappy, and he doesn’t fill me with confidence the way Rooney does when he walks onto the pitch. I suspect Owen will still get priority alongside Rooney when he returns to fitness, which seems harsh given that I’m not rating Owen very highly either right now.
We should be testing new striking options rather than defaulting to the familiar. I’m not a massive Defoe fan, but I wish they’d give Bent and Johnson more opportunities — even in friendlies.
Dropping Beckham I can support. He’s still a very good player, but having both Lampard and Gerrard in midfield without Beckham getting in the way makes us better. Sven always felt compelled to play him as captain — probably always wanted to — but McLaren’s decision to drop him is brave, and the lack of significant backlash, combined with the results, suggests many fans agree.
I’ve never really sat down and picked a first XI, but here’s what I’d go with today, based on who’s available and playing well:
4-4-2. Forget the fancy continental stuff. We want attacking, creative football, like West Ham give us week in, week out.
GK: Robinson
DEF: Gary Neville (RB), Ashley Cole (LB), John Terry (CB), Jamie Carragher (CB)
MID: Joe Cole (LM), Lampard, Hargreaves, Gerrard (RM)
STR: Darren Bent, Wayne Rooney
I’d have Rooney dropping back into the right shoulder of Bent, drawing the defensive attention and laying it off. Darren Bent is smart enough to find good positions and avoid the offside trap — he just needs to get over the nerves of the England setup. As I see it, the top scorer in the Premier League during a World Cup season gets on the plane. Full stop. I can’t understand why he wasn’t there, and I’d have taken him over an untested 17-year-old every time.
No Rio Ferdinand will raise eyebrows, but Carragher is more flexible — he can play across the defensive line and works every bit as hard, if not harder. Rio has more natural ability but doesn’t always stretch himself.
Stuart Downing and Wayne Bridge don’t get a look-in. Bridge might make the bench if needed, but I wouldn’t swap either of them for Joe Cole. He’s matured enormously from his reckless early West Ham days into an opportunist who creates chances for himself as well as for the forwards.
It’s obvious I favour an attacking setup, but I’d justify that by pointing to the English defence right now — arguably the best in the world. I hate football where teams play for draws on the road and shut up shop the moment they score. The fans have paid to watch a game, and the players have the ability to give them one. So go for it. If I were up front, I wouldn’t be worrying about losing the ball with John Terry behind me. I’ve got it, and I’m going to score or find someone who will.
Finally: John Terry for captain. It was always going to happen after he led Chelsea to back-to-back titles. Gerrard is a superb motivator and it’s a genuine shame they couldn’t both have the armband, but Terry is the right man for the job. I could have lived with either choice — but Terry gets it from me.
