After another disappointing display on their travels, England are going to be without Wayne Rooney for the group stage of Euro 2012. The events of Friday evening are sure to bring back memories of Rooney's previous rebellious escapades and this evident violent display is certainly reminiscent of his dismissal in Euro 2004 after a stamp on Portuguese centre-half Ricardo Carvalho. After Rooney showed the travelling England fans he still is yet to fully mature as a world class footballer, England went on to put in a mediocre performance against a team 39th ranked in the FIFA world rankings (a full 32 places behind England) as the match ended with two goals a piece. Although England qualified comfortably six points ahead of second, this match certainly sent Capello and the players a wake up call and underlined the amount of work needed to be done before next summer. It certainly raised the question that if England continue to play below par and can only manage lackluster draws against average European sides, what is going to happen when we draw Holland, Spain or Germany in the quarter finals of next summers tournament? It also poses the question can we even get that far with out are supposed Talisman of a front man and arguably are only striker, in what is a young English side, that is capable of scoring goals on a regular basis.
On a slightly positive note at least we qualified and avoided a repeat of the shame of 2007 in which we witnessed a horrid turn of events as England fell at the last hurdle and failed to make it to the tournament which thousands of England fans had already made arrangements to be at. Capello's side will surely be hoping to progress further than their disappointing early exit in the round of sixteen in South Africa over a year ago. One word of warning to England fans is don't get your hopes up. England haven't progressed further than the quarter finals of a major tournament since EURO 96 when England lost to Germany in a penalty shoot out in the semi-finals. Since then we have had various naive managers confident of a world cup win. For example Glen Hoddle who quoted "I honestly thought we would win it" after England got knocked out of the world cup in the round of sixteen to Argentina in 1998. Not forgetting are old friend Sven Goran-Erikson who was quoted "i think we will win it" before the 2002 world cup finals in Korea/Japan. Sven became a joke to most England fans as soon as they were comfortably beaten by Brazil in the quarter finals however went as coach until 2006 when he made way for the equally useless Steve McClaren.
There will certainly be alot of hope amongst fans and players next year at the finals however i cant help thinking that when we come up against a top twenty side we will struggle and once again take an early exit. I may seem pessimistic towards England's world cup chances as we do have a good, young squad of players who play very well week in week out for their club, however i cant believe that Capeelo will be able to perform a miracle and get this squad of players to beat the likes of Spain and Holland, the powerhouses of International Football. The one bit of advice i will leave you with is come next summer be sure to support England, but please be realistic.
Thanks for reading. I will now be posting regularly again so you will be hearing more from me over the next few weeks.
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Joe
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