Harry Kane shone like a diamond in the group stages but faded quickly. In fairness I think he played a very unselfish role against Sweden taking players with him to create space for others. Whether he deserves the golden boot is irrelevant, he scored the goals and you can only play what is in front of you, pub team or not.
That said I know it will not be a popular view but I'm afraid that I just don't get this England frenzy that seems to be sweeping the nation.
Some positives are that we now have an England manager who oozes class, he has the confidence and respect of his players and has got the national team back in the 'good books' of the general public. Kieran Trippier has been my stand out player of the tournament, John Stones and Harry Maguire look, in the most part, a solid defensive partnership and Jordan Pickford had goalkeeping displays that I'm sure even the great Peter Shilton would have been proud of.
But
England played two decent teams in this tournament and lost to both of them! Had we faced Croatia in the round of 16 and gone out would the media frenzy be totally different?
Would Germany, Argentina or Brazil demand an open top bus tour if they went out to Croatia in the semi-finals? Not a chance, they are there to win and anything less is deemed failure, this is the mentality I want England to have!
We beat Tunisia (injury time winner needed), Panama (a team that would likely struggle in League 1), Columbia (penalties needed, which can be a lottery) and Sweden (a post Ibrahimovic team now well past their best). Hardly the cream of footballing nations. The games against Belgium and Croatia both showed the gulf that exists between having young players with potential and genuine, well established, real quality.
Today's game had lots of tippy tappy football around the box but very little quality in it, I believe one commentator said that only Iran had created less chances from open play than England. We do however seem to strike fear into the hearts of the opposition when it comes to set pieces which is definitely not a bad thing.
After some very bad years for our national team the green shoots of recovery are definitely showing but there is till a very long way to go. Ensuring that our young squad are getting regular, first team league football would be a start. We also need to somehow find an English Luka Modric or Kevin De Bruyne, a player that can turn a game on it's head with one moment of sheer class. I look at Mbappe with envy just wishing that he was English.
Russia 2018 looks to have stopped the rot and finally steered the England team back on to the path of enlightenment but there is still a huge amount of work to do. So it's over to you Mr Southgate.......Euro 2020 final at Wembley Stadium, let's actually bring it home 🙂
I agree with much of that which is why I see no need for celebration when, for example, a British athlete wins a silver or bronze medal at the Olympic Games. Only the gold is worth winning in my view. Perhaps it's a national characteristic that our nation is prepared to say, "Jolly well done but bad luck", when someone does well bit fails to win. Many other countries want to win and anything else is not worth shouting about.
I think there might be two reasons for the wild celebrations in England (I don't think the rest of the UK joined in which perhaps is an indication of the polarisation within the UK to a degree):
First, the England team did far better than at any time in the living memory of many supporters having gone to Russia with the lowest expectation for an England team that I can ever recall and my first memory of England and the World Cup was Switzerland in 1954 when some of the games were televised rather shakily by the infant Eurovision with connections frequently dropping out.
Second, with the UK divided over Brexit the country (England) just wanted an excuse to let its hair down and the amazing weather also helped the good mood. Probably the football World Cup is the only event that could have brought the English people together like this, other than something like VE Day and we don't want anything like that again.
I would be a bit more charitable regarding the overall performances. A team can only beat the opposition that it faces and in the group matches England should have beaten Tunisia far more easily given their display versus that of the Tunisians, and late important goals are often the mark of a determinedly successful if not necessarily outstanding team. Panama were disposed of ruthlessly and the group match against Belgium was one that the virtual reserve sides of either country could not make up their mind whether they wanted to win or not given the likely respective subsequent paths to the Final.
Columbia was a very unfortunate affair with the England team continually disrupted by the antics of the Columbians (unnecessarily given that when they did decide to play properly towards the end of the 90 minutes they looked a very decent side) and I was very pleased that the young England team did not react in the way the Columbians were hoping with their non-footballing behaviour.
Sweden were despatched competently. They are always difficult to beat and I was impressed by England that day.
The semi final could, should and almost certainly would have seen a different result had England made the most of their first half dominance. They had chances - Kane would normally gobble up the one he had and missed - to have put them out of sight by half time. I ascribe no importance to the unnecessary game yesterday. To me it was like a friendly fixture that no-one wants. Had England won 6-0 I would have taken no particular pleasure given its relevance, although as I said in another post I always like to see England win even in friendly matches that are little more than public practice games such as those pre-tournament games we sat through, or some of us did anyway.
The Golden Boot is one of those silly and unimportant things like Man of the Match or Goal of the Month where a freak 30-yard overhead volley that a player might do once in a lifetime is considered worthier than a free-flowing move involving numerous players that ends in a tap-in.
In general, I'm very encouraged by the England squad and management but, as Southgate is quick to point out, it is very much a work in progress and still needs much polishing with the understanding that there is a nucleus but still a need to find top players to support that nucleus. The outstanding displays of the Under 20s and Under 17s in winning their World Cups in recent years shows the talent is in the pipeline. These youngsters need proper development which includes top flight game time at club level, something that is desperately hard for many of them to achieve in the Premier League.
