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Well, I should have kept my mouth shut. England our out of the world cup, and not in particularly elegant style. Plus, it was penalties again.

I’m not a sobbing wreck up here; It’s not been a pretty campaign, and the team didn’t ever really click in a way that they needed to to genuinely deserve to get into the final stages. Much like Brazil distinctly under-whelmed in the group stages, it shows that a few good players do not a winning team make.

I think England showed real spark and flare after Rooney was deservedly sent off. His Beckham moment indeed, and he’s demonstrated to many people that he’s got a long way to go before he’ll be a complete player. Which showed to me, I think, that there was too much reliance on one man. Without him, England were forced to push harder and dig deeper. Success in adversity and all that.

Now the news that Beckham has quit as captain. Well, his substitute Lennon demonstrated that there are plenty of people ready to take on his position, but - as with Cricket - a good captain deserves a good chance, and Beckham has done his country proud on more than one occasion to have merited a bit more tolerance regarding his place in the squad.

I’ve frequently thought that Ericsson was on the receiving end of a lot of bad press over the last year or two, but his strange decision regarding strikers, and formation in the last couple of matches, demonstrated to me that it really is good that England are getting a new manager; One that seems to be prepared to get up from the bench and get passionate on occasion too. Coolness sometimes seems more like dispassion.

Ah well, I think we’re still in for a football treat in the last week of the world cup. With it down to European sides it’ll miss out on the variety from other parts of the world, south america in particular. But a likely final between France and host-nation Germany should be a treat to watch, with an atmosphere and edge to be savoured.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 2nd, 2006 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Football, Sport, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.