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a quite staggering article from Patrick Barclay:
England can win the 2010 World Cup
This time, more than any other time . . .
This time/We’ll get it right . . .
It was one of England’s more stirring World Cup songs and, for more than the 27 seconds Bryan Robson took to give them the lead against France, it seemed to work.
We’re on our way . . .
They truly were. It was 1982 and England won that first match 3-1 despite Michel Platini’s presence in a France team who were to become European champions two years later. England went on to beat Czechoslovakia and Kuwait in their group.
We are Ron’s 22 . . .
Ron was, of course, Greenwood, behind whose ever-furrowed brow worked one of England’s finest footballing brains. Greenwood had a universal view of the game — with him around there was no need to bring in a foreign coach — and even today Trevor Brooking, the FA’s admirable director of football development, can hardly finish a sentence without alluding to one of his timeless principles.
As soon as Greenwood’s England moved from Bilbao to Madrid for the second stage, however, it became obvious they had run out of ideas and the campaign expired with scoreless matches against West Germany and (despite the eleventh-hour introduction of Brooking and Kevin Keegan, both of whom had been injured) Spain. While Greenwood was handing his job to Bobby Robson and the players were holidaying, France proceeded to the semi-final and lost only on penalties to West Germany after a dazzling 3-3 draw marred by Toni Schumacher’s infamous collision with Patrick Battiston.
England are good at false dawns. One lit the Munich sky in September 2001, when Sven-Göran Eriksson’s team beat Germany 5-1 in a World Cup qualifying match. The next summer England were knocked out by Brazil in the quarter-finals. Germany reached the final.
So were we buying the same old story in Zagreb last September? No, to put the question more honestly: was I? Responsibility must be taken, for no critic was more excited about — or convinced by — England’s 4-1 victory over the Croatia team who had denied them a place in the 2008 European Championship finals.
Those with England closer to their hearts tempered optimism with caution. I saw the missing link: teamwork of a quality scarcely witnessed since the 1966 final in which Alf Ramsey’s men ran themselves almost to a standstill. I saw the foundations of a team who could go the whole distance again in 2010.
Fabio Capello’s England were certainly more impressive in Zagreb than Eriksson’s had been in Munich. For a while, Munich could have gone either way — Sebastian Deisler missed a crucial chance — but Zagreb was the tightest, meanest display a manager could demand, even if the mind’s eye prefers to recall Theo Walcott skipping to a hat-trick.
Behind this fairytale, I still sense, lay substance. Eight months on, Walcott’s feat seems more significant than another teenager’s thrilling intervention a decade earlier, even though Michael Owen’s goal against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup made for a great match. England collapsed after that; Glenn Hoddle, an excellent coach, was doomed.
They have built on Zagreb with another good performance in Belarus and a resonant triumph in Germany in which stand-ins, notably Michael Carrick and Stewart Downing, excelled, intensifying competition for places.
Again, teamwork was evident in Berlin, despite all the changes forced on Capello. The Italian appears to have got over a message that predecessors, including Steve McClaren, preached in vain. McClaren knew much more than he was given credit for and never stopped talking about teamwork. But his players formed only a veneer of it. Under Capello it goes deeper.
Capello is one of the main reasons to fancy England for the World Cup in South Africa. Not that I have changed the opinion that it is wrong to have a foreign manager; that for any leading football nation with a long-established coaching tradition to hire a mercenary is a form of cheating. I thought that when the FA opened its coffers to Eriksson, promising it was for this one time only, and I thought it when it not only threw millions at Capello but let him bring assistants for company.
Brazil would not do that. Nor would Argentina. Germany considered it once (you may detect irony in the fact it approached an Englishman, Roy Hodgson) — but changed its mind for fear of discouraging indigenous coaches.
France hire French coaches. Holland go Dutch. And the joy of Spain’s success in the European Championship last summer was all the more pure for its being a culmination of the work of Luis Aragonés. But in England the principled argument is lost — and those who believe in success at any price are heading for vindication.
Capello has one thing in common with Ramsey. He doesn’t make the mistake of treating players like adults. Not in the sense of trusting them. Eriksson, whose experience was largely of self-starting Swedes and ultra-professional Italians, trusted English players and was let down in tournaments. McClaren was indulgent, too. Capello has never confused teamwork with friendship.
As in Ramsey’s case, he would be nothing without a core of first-rate players and it has already formed: Rio Ferdinand and, in his way, John Terry at the back, Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry in midfield, Steven Gerrard between midfield and the front, Wayne Rooney wherever it is decided.
Then there are Emile Heskey and David Beckham, if their physiques survive another 15 months, and Owen Hargreaves, the saving grace of Eriksson’s final campaign in Germany, if he recovers from injury. And Carrick, and so on.
You will have noticed a few gaps. Starting in goal. David James will be nearly 40 when the World Cup starts and he is not Dino Zoff. Almost, but not quite. Salvation, though, should come in the form of Ben Foster, whose performance for Manchester United in the Carling Cup final showed he is worthy of taking over from Edwin van der Sar when the great Dutchman’s creaks become audible.
At right back, the once-strident claims of Micah Richards are not even a whisper because his form for Manchester City has slumped amid reports of a questionable attitude. Glen Johnson, who once suffered for that, has matured, but his defensive work remains patchy. Gary Neville fights the ravages of time. Maybe Wes Brown will return. Or maybe this is the role for Hargreaves.
True, fingers must be crossed for Rooney’s physique and temperament, but there is time for contenders to emerge, as Thierry Henry did for France in 1998 when everyone doubted they could win a World Cup with Stéphane Guivarc’h.
The main factor is that playing for England has become attractive again. Players want to seize opportunities, as Downing did in Berlin. And Wayne Bridge — another good sign, for Ashley Cole no longer looks world class to me.
Having re-established a balance of pride and “humility” — Capello used the word in demanding egos be subjugated — the manager has made home form a priority. All the best football has been abroad and on Saturday, on that still-suspect Wembley surface on which Slovakia are to play a friendly international, England will be asked to please the customers before next Wednesday’s arrival of Ukraine on World Cup qualifying business.
Thus far, Capello has delivered — and his plans stretch all the way. He has arranged a clear month between the end of next season and the start of the tournament and intends to train his men at altitude, even if they are to play matches at sea level (Durban, Cape Town). But even he may not yet realise what a boon to England will be the weather.
This should be the coolest of World Cups. In most places, it will be mild to sharp. For Capello’s team, it will be like playing in an English spring. And they really don’t like it hot.
You see it in tournament after tournament and, occasionally, when the temperature falls, they obtain a surge, as in Niigata, Japan, in the World Cup summer of 2002, when a downpour cleared and chilled the air and they raced into a 3-0 lead over Denmark.
This does not mean that they can neglect the virtue of patience, but that English players have come to understand it is increasingly obvious in the Champions League. After all that drivel about their being squeezed out by foreigners, we can see that the best of the English have benefited from association with distinguished imports, both players and coaches.
Premier League money has made for a more potent England, an England tactically equipped to crown Capello’s career. The ticket has been bought and football is coming home.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/patrick_barclay/article5955964.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1
He says England's 5-1 win in germany was lucky 'cos deisler missed a sitter but that the 4-1 in Croatia was different (despite the fact that it was a huge slice of luck for the 1st goal that opened up Croatia and one of their players had a rush of blood to needlessly get sent off early in the 2nd half)
As for his starting XI to win the World Cup
Yeah Barry and Lampard is a world cup winning CM if ever I've seen one
And I can just see the rest of the world quivering in their boots at the prospect of facing the searing pace of Hargreaves and Beckham down the right hand side
England can win the 2010 World Cup
This time, more than any other time . . .
This time/We’ll get it right . . .
It was one of England’s more stirring World Cup songs and, for more than the 27 seconds Bryan Robson took to give them the lead against France, it seemed to work.
We’re on our way . . .
They truly were. It was 1982 and England won that first match 3-1 despite Michel Platini’s presence in a France team who were to become European champions two years later. England went on to beat Czechoslovakia and Kuwait in their group.
We are Ron’s 22 . . .
Ron was, of course, Greenwood, behind whose ever-furrowed brow worked one of England’s finest footballing brains. Greenwood had a universal view of the game — with him around there was no need to bring in a foreign coach — and even today Trevor Brooking, the FA’s admirable director of football development, can hardly finish a sentence without alluding to one of his timeless principles.
As soon as Greenwood’s England moved from Bilbao to Madrid for the second stage, however, it became obvious they had run out of ideas and the campaign expired with scoreless matches against West Germany and (despite the eleventh-hour introduction of Brooking and Kevin Keegan, both of whom had been injured) Spain. While Greenwood was handing his job to Bobby Robson and the players were holidaying, France proceeded to the semi-final and lost only on penalties to West Germany after a dazzling 3-3 draw marred by Toni Schumacher’s infamous collision with Patrick Battiston.
England are good at false dawns. One lit the Munich sky in September 2001, when Sven-Göran Eriksson’s team beat Germany 5-1 in a World Cup qualifying match. The next summer England were knocked out by Brazil in the quarter-finals. Germany reached the final.
So were we buying the same old story in Zagreb last September? No, to put the question more honestly: was I? Responsibility must be taken, for no critic was more excited about — or convinced by — England’s 4-1 victory over the Croatia team who had denied them a place in the 2008 European Championship finals.
Those with England closer to their hearts tempered optimism with caution. I saw the missing link: teamwork of a quality scarcely witnessed since the 1966 final in which Alf Ramsey’s men ran themselves almost to a standstill. I saw the foundations of a team who could go the whole distance again in 2010.
Fabio Capello’s England were certainly more impressive in Zagreb than Eriksson’s had been in Munich. For a while, Munich could have gone either way — Sebastian Deisler missed a crucial chance — but Zagreb was the tightest, meanest display a manager could demand, even if the mind’s eye prefers to recall Theo Walcott skipping to a hat-trick.
Behind this fairytale, I still sense, lay substance. Eight months on, Walcott’s feat seems more significant than another teenager’s thrilling intervention a decade earlier, even though Michael Owen’s goal against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup made for a great match. England collapsed after that; Glenn Hoddle, an excellent coach, was doomed.
They have built on Zagreb with another good performance in Belarus and a resonant triumph in Germany in which stand-ins, notably Michael Carrick and Stewart Downing, excelled, intensifying competition for places.
Again, teamwork was evident in Berlin, despite all the changes forced on Capello. The Italian appears to have got over a message that predecessors, including Steve McClaren, preached in vain. McClaren knew much more than he was given credit for and never stopped talking about teamwork. But his players formed only a veneer of it. Under Capello it goes deeper.
Capello is one of the main reasons to fancy England for the World Cup in South Africa. Not that I have changed the opinion that it is wrong to have a foreign manager; that for any leading football nation with a long-established coaching tradition to hire a mercenary is a form of cheating. I thought that when the FA opened its coffers to Eriksson, promising it was for this one time only, and I thought it when it not only threw millions at Capello but let him bring assistants for company.
Brazil would not do that. Nor would Argentina. Germany considered it once (you may detect irony in the fact it approached an Englishman, Roy Hodgson) — but changed its mind for fear of discouraging indigenous coaches.
France hire French coaches. Holland go Dutch. And the joy of Spain’s success in the European Championship last summer was all the more pure for its being a culmination of the work of Luis Aragonés. But in England the principled argument is lost — and those who believe in success at any price are heading for vindication.
Capello has one thing in common with Ramsey. He doesn’t make the mistake of treating players like adults. Not in the sense of trusting them. Eriksson, whose experience was largely of self-starting Swedes and ultra-professional Italians, trusted English players and was let down in tournaments. McClaren was indulgent, too. Capello has never confused teamwork with friendship.
As in Ramsey’s case, he would be nothing without a core of first-rate players and it has already formed: Rio Ferdinand and, in his way, John Terry at the back, Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry in midfield, Steven Gerrard between midfield and the front, Wayne Rooney wherever it is decided.
Then there are Emile Heskey and David Beckham, if their physiques survive another 15 months, and Owen Hargreaves, the saving grace of Eriksson’s final campaign in Germany, if he recovers from injury. And Carrick, and so on.
You will have noticed a few gaps. Starting in goal. David James will be nearly 40 when the World Cup starts and he is not Dino Zoff. Almost, but not quite. Salvation, though, should come in the form of Ben Foster, whose performance for Manchester United in the Carling Cup final showed he is worthy of taking over from Edwin van der Sar when the great Dutchman’s creaks become audible.
At right back, the once-strident claims of Micah Richards are not even a whisper because his form for Manchester City has slumped amid reports of a questionable attitude. Glen Johnson, who once suffered for that, has matured, but his defensive work remains patchy. Gary Neville fights the ravages of time. Maybe Wes Brown will return. Or maybe this is the role for Hargreaves.
True, fingers must be crossed for Rooney’s physique and temperament, but there is time for contenders to emerge, as Thierry Henry did for France in 1998 when everyone doubted they could win a World Cup with Stéphane Guivarc’h.
The main factor is that playing for England has become attractive again. Players want to seize opportunities, as Downing did in Berlin. And Wayne Bridge — another good sign, for Ashley Cole no longer looks world class to me.
Having re-established a balance of pride and “humility” — Capello used the word in demanding egos be subjugated — the manager has made home form a priority. All the best football has been abroad and on Saturday, on that still-suspect Wembley surface on which Slovakia are to play a friendly international, England will be asked to please the customers before next Wednesday’s arrival of Ukraine on World Cup qualifying business.
Thus far, Capello has delivered — and his plans stretch all the way. He has arranged a clear month between the end of next season and the start of the tournament and intends to train his men at altitude, even if they are to play matches at sea level (Durban, Cape Town). But even he may not yet realise what a boon to England will be the weather.
This should be the coolest of World Cups. In most places, it will be mild to sharp. For Capello’s team, it will be like playing in an English spring. And they really don’t like it hot.
You see it in tournament after tournament and, occasionally, when the temperature falls, they obtain a surge, as in Niigata, Japan, in the World Cup summer of 2002, when a downpour cleared and chilled the air and they raced into a 3-0 lead over Denmark.
This does not mean that they can neglect the virtue of patience, but that English players have come to understand it is increasingly obvious in the Champions League. After all that drivel about their being squeezed out by foreigners, we can see that the best of the English have benefited from association with distinguished imports, both players and coaches.
Premier League money has made for a more potent England, an England tactically equipped to crown Capello’s career. The ticket has been bought and football is coming home.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/patrick_barclay/article5955964.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1
He says England's 5-1 win in germany was lucky 'cos deisler missed a sitter but that the 4-1 in Croatia was different (despite the fact that it was a huge slice of luck for the 1st goal that opened up Croatia and one of their players had a rush of blood to needlessly get sent off early in the 2nd half)
As for his starting XI to win the World Cup
Yeah Barry and Lampard is a world cup winning CM if ever I've seen one
And I can just see the rest of the world quivering in their boots at the prospect of facing the searing pace of Hargreaves and Beckham down the right hand side
