England will not be in the finals of a major football tournament for the first time since the 1994 World Cup, as they lost to Croatia 2-3 at the Wembley. In a dramatic night, Croatia went two goals ahead after 14 minutes but England drew level after half-time with a Frank Lampard penalty and an excellent Peter Crouch finish.
However, Petric’s winner in the 77th minute and Russia’s 1-0 win in Andorra means England will have to watch the other big European countries converge in Austria-Switzerland for the Euro Championships.
England has one of the best squads, with lots of superstars, no doubt. But it takes an inspirational manager to mould the squad into a world-class team. England under McClaren, never looked like a ‘team’. Frank Lampard is at best, an overrated player who has Essien and Makelele doing the dirty job behind him at Chelsea. Gerrard is inspirational for Liverpool where he is surrounded by good foreign players but when has he ever shone in the English team?
No one can question their passion but Lampard and Gerrard just do not have the technique or the skill of a Fabregas or a Scholes. When was the last time we saw Lampard providing a defence-splitting pass for an England striker to score? And when his goals dried up, all we could see was a one-dimensional player. That players like Xabi Alonso, and even Cesc Fabregas sometimes do not make it to the first team, shows the quality Spain has.
Agreed that the English media puts tremendous pressure on its players but then it is the same case with Spain, Italy, and France. In fact, Spain’s Luis Aragones faced calls for resignation almost through the entire qualifying campaign.
It is not fair to put the blame entirely on Steve McClaren, his selection and tactics, since England players are not as good as they are hyped up to be. The huge influx of foreign players has definitely had a negative impact on the English national team, with fewer English youngsters getting a chance to prove themselves.
But then, who can blame top English teams like Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool preferring to sign Portugese and Spanish youngsters when the only other option is English youngsters with limited technique. One would feel compelled to put the blame on the FA again for their failure to develop players at the grass-root level.
The failure to reach the Euro Championships (from a relatively easier group) might actually be a blessing in disguise. It has revealed some serious issues for the English FA to address. The FA has to take this opportunity and take some sincere efforts to improve youngsters at the grass-root levels. The English Premier League might be one of the best and most entertaining leagues in the world, but that just conceals the rot at the national level. It’s the bitter truth – England never truly deserved to make it to Euro 2008.
Teams for Euro Championships at 2008.
Switzerland Croatia
Austria Italy
Greece Czech Republic
Holland Sweden
Germany Poland
Romania France
Portugal Turkey
Spain Russia
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Tags: Football
Completely agree that England just didn’t deserve to make the Euros.
Their performance at key moments during the qualifiers has been shocking. Not one person (except maybe Barry) has stood up to be counted through the qualifiers. Doesn’t really bode well for the World Cup 2010 qualifiers.
Jose for England?
While i agree with most of the stuff that you wrote, i just have one observation. Why is it that the blame is always put on shoulders on Lampard ? Atleast he had the balls to take the penalty that put England back in the game. What did Gerrard do in the entire game ? And not only this game, where was Gerrard when Lampard was not in the team. What are the “driving” moves that he made ? Reality is, while Lampard is well acknowledged to be a pure attacking midfielder who scores a lot of goals for his club, Gerrard is just a overrated long distance runner who has a good shot. He has absolutely no discipline, no technique and tries the Hollywood ball too much. At Liverpool, all the dirty work is done by Mascherano and defence spliting pass work by Alonso while Gerrard runs like a headless chicken trying to thump the ball forward.
Scholes ? He also might be very good in premiership but did he perform for England ?? I dont think so. To say he is even close to Fabregas in technique is blasphemy
The problem with English football is not foreigners (i dont remember england winning a lot of trophies before premiership started ??). It is the overhyping of any half-decent english player and overpricing them (Darren Bent for 16 million anyone ?). The earlier the english media, fans and FA understand that they are a mediocre side with mediocre players, the better it will be for english football because then maybe FA can take some hard decisions.
One more thing, i would love to see the face of Sven when the final whistle blew at Wembley. Boy wouldnt he be laughing
)
@Z
I doubt if Jose will take up the offer. He feels it would be weird to manage England against his home nation. I am sure he is waiting for his next big job next summer. It will be one of the Milan clubs or Bayern Munich.
@Mihir Saxena
I have mentioned that both Gerrard and Lampard lack in technique…totally agree that Gerrard is more of a runner than one who provides the perfect assist.
Scholes, I believe, has always been known for his high level of passing….not for the running around aimlessly….at least with him in midfield, England have reached the QFs of major tournaments…btw, he played in the left-wing during Euro 2004! Scholes is not given much prominence in the media because he rarely speaks to them and never gives interviews.
And, did you know what Wenger said of Cesc? He said that Cesc is the next Paul Scholes
Yes English players are over-hyped and Bent was valued that much because of lack of English youngsters coming through the ranks. So, clearly, for an English player who plays decently, the price has to be high.
Yeah, the much-maligned Sven would be smiling. For all the rants against him by fans and the media, he did take them to the QFs of 3 major tournaments.
@Mihir: Mate, where have you been all these days!
I agree that StevieG just seems to be beyond criticism. There is no doubt that he has been Liverpool’s most influential player over the past decade but the fact is that the man has done F*** all for England!
I bet the FA will huff and puff over the next three weeks and after running through names like Jose, Fabio, Guus, Arsene will finally offer the job to a Sam. At least he will have the balls to drop Gerrard or Lampard.
CROATIA-CROATIA-CROATIA-CROATIA!!!!!!!!!!!
@Prashanth
Not much soccer posts on the site
so kind of missing 
And do you seriously think Sam has the balls to drop Gerrard ??
Well, we seem to have a whole set of football posts up!
As soon as you had those up, i was back commenting
The blog is on my RSS list man 
So dont worry about losing out on readership.