I am a polyanna-type when it comes to England in the World Cup. At each tournament, I imagine an easy procession through the group stages and a few tussles in the last 8 or 4 and for this tournament to be one where we get the rub of the green and it goes our way.
They haven’t really covered themselves in glory in recent tournaments (the last 5) and the 2010 and 2014 ones were also low points, I shouldn’t be expecting much and I am trying not to.
But…but…have you taken on board that England have won both the U20 and U17 World Cup tournaments?
Yesterday’s game was a cracker – 2-0 down and then 5 in the old onion bag in response – against Spain. It’s the stuff of dreams. It won’t be long until these players are mixing it with the big fellas.
But more to the point, the FA seem to be doing things in order to win tournaments. There are surely things which they are doing which are giving England an edge. Will this translate to the EPL Prima Donnas? Dare we hope?
paulwright says
Its good news for English football, but I noticed that in the semi-final Spain beat Mali. Do we therefore expect Mali to be in the late stages of the 2022 World cup? I think not.
Its the hope that kills.
I expect we shall do what we have done for the past 50 years and under perform.
NigelT says
The problem is that the big Premier League clubs on the whole don’t use their academies to bring talent into the first team – therefore these players don’t get the experience at the higher level. An honourable exception is Pochetino who has coached 15 of the last 30 debutants at senior level and really believes in English talent. It’s the money thing again – it’s perceived as easier to buy in experience and talent than take a risk on these youngsters.
deramdaze says
Maybe such successes should be regarded on their own terms, rather than the inevitable “how many will put in a shift at a World Cup” angle and, as such, what a brilliant effort to come back from 0-2, against Spain!
There is no sadder sight, every season, than a sparsely-populated Stamford Bridge (sorry, “The Bridge”) hosting another pointless, pitiful, F.A. Youth Cup victory for Chelsea’s … not for long … U18s.
Alas, that particular competition, certainly in it’s latter stages, is more poisoned now than either the League Cup or F.A. Cup.
Dave Ross says
These kids won’t get games and will disappear from view or end up being kicked out of the game in the lower leagues. Thank god for Spurs at the moment, imagine the England team without their input. Lets take Sunderland as an example, they could not possibly have done any worse than if they’d taken the best youngsters from the big 6 on loan or buying and giving them premier league games. Surely better than tired old pros and mercenary foreigners. Any Premier League clubs out there fancy giving me a bell we’ll give it a right go..
Carl says
Let us not forget Everton have been giving young players a chance too – Dominic Calvert-Lewin (scorer of the winning goal in the U20 World Cup Final), Tom Davies, Jonjoe Kenny and Mason Holgate have all appeared regularly, even under the unlamented Koeman. Ademola Lookman will be inwardly celebrating the departure of RK, as caretaker boss David Unsworth gave him time on Wednesday against Chelsea and he’s likely to appear today.
As for England next year in the World Cup – I’ll be surprised if they make the quarter finals.
dai says
A fine achievement but two things. Probably only 2 or 3 of the players will make it at the highest level. Also, age group games are, by definition, artificial. Generally all the players are the same age. A team that will win the World Cup could have players aged from 19 to 35 all playing together.
Kid Dynamite says
STOP IT.
One of the few good things about football in the last decade or so has been the increasingly widespread acceptance that England are a mediocre international team. The dialling down of all the “Golden Generation” crap has been a blessed relief. Let’s not get all excited over nothing again.
Bingo Little says
I was at the England Slovenia game a couple of weeks back. The England team are at least as crap as I’ve ever seen them – poor manager, poor players, just about flatter to deceive in the qualifiers and will go out to the first decent side they play, unless someone hits perfect form at the right moment (which they’re unlikely to do because half of them will be run into the ground by May).
Furthermore, this World Cup, and indeed Russia, can cock off. Wake me up when they host it somewhere that isn’t a backwards-ass tin-pot dictatorship.
MC Escher says
Blimey, so you won’t be watching until the 2026 qualifiers?
deramdaze says
I, too, am going to kick the next World Cup, and the farce in Qatar, on the head.
It’s cricket all the way next summer.
But, I’ll put my two pennies’ worth about the side.
I’d go for those who play for teams who play 30-42 games (West Brom, Stoke, Bournemouth, West Ham) a season, whoever they are, and I couldn’t name one, above the always-knackered 60-gamers who play for Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, Man. U. etc., and are ALWAYS shite. Pick the guy whose season is all but over in March.
Of the 11 in the ’66 side, six played for teams in the lower half of the ’65-’66 table.
Moose the Mooche says
Well, a team with a few black players in is going to have an “interesting” time in Russia, that’s for sure.
Bingo Little says
As will the traveling English fans.
Tony Japanese says
@Kid_Dynamite has got it spot on. Nobody expects England to do very well in Russia. Anyway, is it possible for a team to ‘under perform’ for fifty years without thinking that’s maybe all they’re capable of? It would suggest they actually over-performed in 1966.
If you look back at previous winners of the U17 World Cup, Nigeria are the most successful team – having lifted the trophy five times. The furthest they have reached in the ‘World Cup for Grown Ups’ is the Round of 16. It’s doing the team a disservice by putting unneeded pressure on them to replicate yesterday’s success in future tournaments.
There were a selection of articles recently in the Guardian about the state of the Academies in English football which is well worth reading.
Hawkfall says
I think England have performed more or less as expected over the last few decades. They have usually gone out in the last 16 or quarter finals, which suggests they were among the Top 10 teams in the world at the time, but not the Top 5. Which I think was probably accurate.
dai says
They over achieved in 1966? Maybe. they won as hosts with every game at Wembley and a generous Russian linesman in the final. Probably 3 or 4 in the team were amongst the best to have played in that particular position, but the 1970 team was considered stronger (at the time).
duco01 says
“a generous Soviet linesman from Azerbaijan”, surely? (Tofiq Bahramov)
Davidg says
I was going to mention the article that appeared in the Saturday Guardian a few weeks ago. Speaking as someone with precious little interest in football – I couldn’t name a single England player, let alone which team they played for – it was a fascinating, if frightening read.
All these young boys plucked out of school and given dreams of football glory, only to have them dashed when they are chucked out at 16, 18 or 21. As Nigel T says above, teams would rather buy in players from abroad than pick someone from their own youth teams. Apparently Huddersfield Town have just cut their academy, with redundancies involved, when they realised that only 3 per cent of boys over the last 12 years or so had gone on to play in the Premier League. But at least Huddersfield were being honest.
The article was concerned with those who were dropped – the vast majority. As their heads were full of dreams of wealth and glory, many had little qualifications. As a result a good number were now detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure for selling Class A drugs. Many had mental health issues and there had been several suicides. I ended up wishing that most other clubs would follow the example of Huddersfield.
But in answer to the original question. In all the World Cups and European Championships, England have only ever reached the semi-finals twice and both of those were played in England. So, if they get to the quarter finals they will have played above all expectations. However, the manager will probably be sacked for failing, even though it would be a huge over-achievement.
Sewer Robot says
Can you have forgotten Gazza’s tears so soon…?
Black Celebration says
They reached the semis in 1990 when the tournament was held in Italy.
Davidg says
Sorry, misread Wiki. I was looking for “semi-final”, but by 1990 there was the third place playoff, so I missed it. Still, my point being that England have rarely got anywhere near winning a major title, except for the one they did, still holds I think. The idea that we are a major footballing power seems unlikely to me.
Mike_H says
Slim.
Black Celebration says
Fair enough.
Black Celebration says
On other points up there, I am OK about Russia hosting because they haven’t had a WC and I consider them a fairly major footballing nation. I know they have scumbag fans, but so do we.
Qatar in 2022…hmm. Like Jacko’s 50 concerts in London, one way or another I don’t think this is going to happen.
Moose the Mooche says
I think Russia’s chances are extremely good…. especially after the entire Spanish, German and Brazilian squads mysteriously go down with “Report this as food poisoning and your children will be safe”
Sewer Robot says
I like the way your evil scheme factors in that France and Belgium are “unpoisonable”, as they already eat all sorts of toxic sh*t
Moose the Mooche says
Goat’s cheese… chips with mayo… damn right, monsieur!