Oh bugger, a calamitous match for England as they go down 2-1 to Brazil. The result was bad enough, but it was the manner of their passing that was so deflating. England were clueless. Despite going into the lead, and giving the nation 20 minutes or so of joy and hope, they couldn’t build on it, nor could they even cling to it. They went behind immediately after half time. The nation groaned, but come on England, there’s still 40-odd minutes to solve the problem. But no counter-offensive ever materialised. England drifted around without a sense of purpose, without a drop of inspiration between them. Beckham was reduced to diving in the penalty area in the forlorn hope of winning a cheat’s penalty. We knew long before the end that the game was up. So yet again, the English mustard remains uncut at a major tournament.
We can now see just what a paper tiger this England team was. A great result against Argentina and a good performance too, but apart from that they had four really quite mediocre games. All along I was thinking how professional they were being, doing just enough to ‘grind out a result’, but they were finally exposed in the Brazil game. Beckham and Owen had poor tournaments by their high standards, and without them (and the injured Stephen Gerrard) we were exposed as a team with no creativity to dig itself out of a hole.
Oh well, there’s always Germany 2006. We’ll be ready then, mark my words…
No run today. Friday is ALWAYS a day of rest.
