…And England sad, sad, sadly are out.
Deservedly so of course this time around, after yet another abject performance littered with individual mistakes and inexplicable ‘no-shows’ from one or two of our much-heralded superstars.
In fact, I’m already massaging my vocal chords for a vociferous sing-song of ‘Where were you in Africa’ directed at Wayne Rooney when he pays a visit to Molineux next season.
But a post about our national side’s shortcomings, this is not.
No, I want to talk about disappointment and, as a Wolves supporter, I feel well equipped to broach the subject.
Whether it be a relatively minor jab in the stomach, such as the two defeats to Birmingham last season or a full-on kick in the gonads like the 2001 collapse that saw Albion pip us to promotion, misery is very much an old acquaintance.
Supporting any football team is no picnic of course (save the likes of Man Utd, Barcelona, etc). You know there will always be ups and downs, yet somehow, coping with disappointment never becomes any easier.
Why is that?
We all have rituals in the aftermath of a particularly irksome defeat. My old favourite is to bury my head in the sand, avoid television like the plague and wallow in self-pity, surrounding myself with like-minded individuals in the warm bosom of the Wolves Blog community. (Come, join me)
But despite helping me feel a smidgen better, none of this makes the pain disappear. Not completely anyway.
So how do you move on and cure a severe case of football misery?
Well, seeing other team’s supporters suffer is certainly one tonic I can recommend. For instance, should Germany be brutally eliminated in the quarter-finals, I imagine we’ll all feel a little better. Not much, but a little.
Finding a scapegoat is an old favourite too. Whether it be Wayne Rooney for curiously forgetting how to play football, Fabio Capello for sending on Heskey when we needed three goals or that linesman who couldn’t see the ball was 3.4 miles over the line, pointing the finger of blame is an essential part of the recovery.
Time is the greatest healer though. Moving on to the next thing. Formulating a new dream to stubbornly cling onto until the walls of disappointment once again come crashing down around you and the circle is complete and the process starts all over again.
Or maybe, just maybe, this time will be different and hope and expectation will be rewarded and all will be right with the world for just a few glorious moments.
Before misery once again returns.
This is essentially, what being a football fan is all about.
That was a game changing moment, but it was VERY disappointing. England panicked and weren’t patient enough, which is why we were caught on the counter attack.
There’s a positive from the game, Lampard was quite good!
All teams still in the Cup uses their speed to counter-attack and their forwards has their noses pointing in the right direction – towards the opposite sides goal.
Many of the teams eliminated so far have no speed and has to rely on set pieces to score. England was one of them.
Capello is an old Italian school manager and was the wrong choice for England. Germany did to England what England did to Germany when Sven was the manager. A man that understands the concept of speed and counter-attack.
Would we have conceded four if Craddock had been playing in defence?
I don’t think so…
i thought the wolves season went too well what wiith all the new signings. something had to bring us down.
We were ripped to pieces on the counter, cruelly exposing our lack of pace and common sense. However we wouldn’t have been playing quite so much on the front foot had it not been for a vulgar, repulsive decision by the officials.
Sepp Blattet said he was against technology as it would detract from the element of opinion and debate which makes football the game of the people we all love so much. A nice sentiment, but surely the ball crossing the line, the ultimate point of the whole game, is such an important component of the game it deserves to be treated as an absolute, with no margin for either opinion or human error.
I’m so bitterly disappointed I could rant for hours about the ineptitude of the players, capello’s dogmatic reverence for the anachronistic 442 system, the media, the ball, the f*****g vuvuzelas, rob green, Landon donovan all night.
But instead I’m going to think about where the Wolves will be by the next world cup, with kightly destroying foreign fullbacks, 36,000 Wolves fans breathing down the necks of our opponents, European football beckoning once again, and thank God I’m neither French nor Italian.
I’m not so certain about goal line technology. The game’s coped without it for 150 years. And once it’s in, people will call for penalties and offsides to be looked at. The game will stop so much it’ll turn into Rugby. Then again, maybe it’s time to move woth the times. Clive’s right, it was no excuse
There’s now two ways about it: in this match Terry and Upson and v. the USA Terry and Carragher were dire! I feel sorry for Glen Johnson getting blasted in some quarters for Podolski’s goal, but he HAD to cover the middle–there was someone steaming in on James completely unmarked. The full-back has to cover the centre sometimes–so where was Milner? Nowhere! AWOL!
I tell you, on current form Hahnemann (than James), Craddock (Terry), Berra (Upson), Henry (Barry), Jarvis (Milner), and Doyle (Defoe) are all equal to or better than the players in today’s England team.
England were dire, but it’s a measure of Wolves’ progress that we can dare to think this!
Even Ward would not have looked out of place in that pathetic line up!!!
Say what you like about the goal that never was, and we would have had a different mentality coming out for the second half at 2 – 2, the fact is we SHOULD have come out with that mentality, with the great sense of injustice done to us, but no, typical prima donnas, no worries, I’ll still get my fat disgusting pay check no matter wha sort of shit I perform.
We did not deserve to be on the same pitch, let alone beat them, and all that hype about penalties, where the fuck did that come from??
I for one will be rooting for Germany to win the cup, coz at least we can say we lost to the winners, and they played some very good footie.
FOE
Left get rid of the “golden generation” they have underachieved and flattered to decieve for too many years. While I think Capelo took the wrong squad, (no left winger at all) the players still failed beyond anyones worst nightmares… The idea that Gareth Barry brings anything to the England team beyond an innate ability to give the ball away beggars belief. With Barry in the middle we lack any kind of balance. David “Calamity” James should have done better on the 1st and 3rd goals. The team did panic and became selfish in the 2nd half, and while “the goal that never was” was game changing, we still have more than 45 minutes to expose their defence to attacks. We barely looked like scoring in the 2nd half. 4-4-2 only works when you have balance, but even to change to a 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 system you need players who can play down the wide parts of the pitch. Milner did it against Slovenia, but at no point, other than then, have any of the England widemen done that and put any kind of decent ball into the box…
Lets forget the overpaid under achievers for the Euro qualifiers, and lets build a young team from scratch that will have the potential to win a game and excite the fans in future tournaments. Hey, the Germans did it… ditch the old tired legs and bring through the kids with quality, its how they get their experience, even if they aren’t “world class” when they start at international level…
I thought the whole england world cup was shocking as everyone else did, but why can no-one criticise certain players? All the pundits bang on about formation, management and anything else they can blame except the people on the pitch, but the players are big enough and most certainly ugly enough to sort themselves out and make the most of whatever formation they play in, and with whatever is thrown at them.
Mr Terry needs to explain why when Lampard has a free kick on the edge of the box which he is blatantly gonna shoot from, he feels the need to run the length of the pitch for no reason to stand in the box (already full of england players), leaving our defence understaffed. Given his speed (German walking pace once he gets warmed up), he has no chance of getting back to help before they break away and score, great decision John. Not only that, he does the same thing again and again… classic. Add to that his comedy missed header for the first goal, his total lack of positional play, and you have our superstar centre back… and lets not pretend he was any better against the c*** teams either!
Rooney threw his toys out of the pram in the 1st game and never played again (despite somehow managing not to get substituted throughout). I’ve never seen a player look so disinterested. I hope they don’t try and say he was tired/injured – he needs to own up and say he doesn’t give a c*** unless things go his way. I bet there were plenty of players (Bent etc) who would have jumped at the chance to play and given a whole load more effort than him if he’d have just said he didn’t fancy it and stayed home.
James (Calamity) gets in because Green makes one mistake (cos James never makes any eh!) and is supposedly our superstar goalie if you believe the hype. I think not judjing by his efforts today (despite what hanson thought)…
Now onto the management….
Crouch never really kicked a ball in anger (despite being pretty much our top scorer over the last few months I think) – why the h*** not? Heskey – do me a favour – Crouch is the same player but 100 times better – scores goals/creates goals/doesn’t fall over when someone blows one of them vuvuzella things in a stadium five miles away 🙂
We had no left wingers and no pace… Young? Johnson? might have been an idea. Walcott instead of Wright Phillips perhaps (WP has had enough chances I think!) When will they learn you need pace to beat even half decent teams. Every other team has it – we don’t hence we get c*** long ball tactics (even when we have just midget strikers on the field!) except for the token 5 minutes a game.
We took 3 goalies – why?? they’re not gonna come on and change a game when we’re losing are they! They’re not gonna scare the opposition when they look to our bench ore they? And when in the history of a tournament has anyone ever played their third choice goalie?? What a waste of a player. We took a team full of injury prone/slow/past it centre backs (why dawson didn’t get a game I do not know) – again – we need to be bold and take more creative players instead of unused defencsive subs – people who can make a difference when we need a spark of something to win games. Argentina have 6 (world class) strikers to choose from for g*** sake – thats what you want to win these things. It was obvious today – we had to score and one look at the bench… nothing there… carragher with a lovely pass to unlock that defence, king to hit a screaming 25 yard shot into the top corner, Heskey to drop the shoulder, slip past a defender and crack it in ?? 🙂 maybe not eh….
Finally on my rant, what did Scott Parker have to do to get on the plane? In probably his last chance of an international tournament season, he drags the most inept West Ham team to safety on his own, defends, attacks, scores, creates and does it all without fuss yet he misses out whilst others out of form or crocked get in the team.
All in all, I think we need fresh ideas, a fresh english speaking manager (worst grasp of a language ever by the way – its not like he has much to do all day for his 6 million quid so learning some words shouldn’t be THAT hard), fresh players and some heart to move forward. Out of the whole squad I’d keep about 5 of them in the new squad! Enough pussy footing around, lets have a cull and drop the old dead wood, including Gerrard, Terry, Ferdinand (he’s been past it for years), James, Heskey, Wright Phillips, J Cole etc. Give the young guys a go and lets play with some width, pace and skill, use our subs when players get tired or have a bad day (whoever they are) and most of all put some blinkin effort in. Out with the egos (including Rooney if he’s so sure he’s above everyone else that he doesn’t have to try), in with players who want to play even if they aren’t the finished article – they can get there as a team.
Finally just so you don’t think I’m biased against certain players, I’m a wolves fan so not shouting for my team’s players to get in instead!! I even think Villa have a pretty good set of young players who should be included!
In reply to all that, you HAVE to bring three goalkeepers 😀
Gaz, glad you wrote that as it saves me a job of saying how I feel. Agree with the lot of it. Interesting point re: Parker. He was in the 28 man squad and along with Adam Johnson, was head and shoulders the best player in training every day. The Fleet Street hacks were gobsmacked that the pair didn’t get in as they impressed so much. I wonder if Capello can answer that?
The one good thing about the peformance and result is that I can make as many statements as I want about not being fit to lace . Nobody can laugh or roll their eyes thanks to such ineptitude.
And Gareth Barry…How much did he cost? The most revolting England player I have ever had the misfortune to watch in the last 20 years. And to think that Carlton Palmer got stick for being rubbish. Never has a fatter, slower, one dimensional player ever made so much money. Same could be said for most of them. They’ve all been showed up for what they are. Frauds.
Everyone loved him, and was desperate for him to be fit not long ago. He didn’t look fit, imagine if we had had someone like Hargreaves.
I didn’t love him and never have Louie. He was at his pedestrian ‘best’ at Molineux back in March and never once did anything of note that rivalled our ‘crab’, who probably got his usual moans and groans for not passing forward. Never has a one paced, one tricked player ever made more out of the game. Possibly bar Platt – another overhyped Villa player.
I’m sick of just about every England player and hope they get pelted with stones at Heathrow airport. Mind you, they’ll be whisked through some VIP area with 35 minders per player. They’ll wear their oversized headphones which will drown out any momentary thought about their pathetic shambolic failings.
Ashley Cole will snigger as he reads a text from his latest slut, who he’ll promise to throw up over later. 30mins later, Terry and Upson will catch up with the group, while Rooney will tell everyone to f**k off for daring to question his worldly skills.
They can all go back to their sordid little worlds and moan to their pea-brained wives about the excruciating pain they endured out in South Africa, when they didn’t even get paid.
I’d burn my season ticket in disgust if any of them ever wore a Wolves shirt.
They can cheapen the 3 Lions and disgrace the memory of Bobby Robson, Moore and co if they want, but I’ll leave the pride and passion stuff to Craddock, Henry, Doyle and co,
They don’t need a team full of world renowned players to make them look good. They don’t need guarantees of position / selection / Champions League and a pack of Fleet Street sycophants to inflate their egos. Nor do they need £100k a week to get out of bed in the morning to grace us with their presence.
Long live the great name of Wolverhampton Wanderers. Even if the great nation we represent is being shafted up the rectum by a bunch of overhyped morons who treat England duty like a whore from Stringfellows.
I think I know Ben’s next blog…. 😀
I’ve never been a huge fan of Barry, he’s ok but he did play very well in the qualifiers (though I’m sure some of the teams in that group would have made Henry look world class too.)
He didn’t look fit at all in the games he played this summer. Henry for England!
Said it before, I’ll say it again. DO NOT PICK ENGLAND PLAYERS FROM THE PL !!! Overpiad, over hyped, out classed, gutless rubbish. No pride or passion for the country, and another abject failure. These prima donnas have no idea how all of us feel to be let down this way. CAPELLO OUT !!
An excellent blog, Thomas, but for some reason I feel a sense of relief after this loss rather than any misery or pain.
An embarrassing loss. Like some of the other respondents, I too was wondering how much better it could have been had Craddock been playing in place of Upson, Henry for Barry, and Jarvis for the (literally) misplaced Gerrard.
But well done Germany, and best of luck (ahem!) to them. They showed our poor unfortunates how football should be played, IMO.
Well, I didn’t really want this to turn into a discussion about England, but seeing as it has:
Just my opinion, but England’s problems in this campaign were:
Incorrect squad selection. The likes of Parker, Johnson and Walcott should have gone in place of ineffective or unused players such as Carrick and Wright-Phillips.
Stubbornly persisting with 4-4-2.
Square pegs in round holes has been a problem for England since Gerrard and Lampard emerged. We desperately need a manager who doesn’t try to crowbar players into the team based on their individual merits. Spain have Fabregas sitting on the bench because there isn’t a place for him in the formation they adopt. They don’t try and force him into the eleven by playing him out wide.
It certainly doesn’t help either, that the players were locked away from civilisation completely, which is bound to have an affect on their state of mind, going into a game. Doing this was understandable, given the whole Sven, WAGs debacle of four years ago, but this took things to the other extreme. A balance is needed.
Oh yeah, and Rooney curiously forgot how to play football throughout the entire tournament.
Talking solely about yesterday (goal line controversy aside), England had better individual players on the pitch, but the sum of Germany’s collective talents was greater than England’s, if that makes sense? In simpler terms, they functioned as a team and England did not.
Had we gone 4-5-1 with two holding players and strangled the life out of their young, creative attackers, I believe we would have progressed.
The finger of blame can only be pointed at Capello for each of these problems, which is hard for me to say, as I’ve always backed him. But he should walk away now. We need an English manager with a bit more nous about the domestic game.
My preference would be Harry Redknapp.
What about Roy Hodgson? He has international experience and surely deserves a crack
England had “better individual players on the pitch”? Cripes Thomas, I must have been watching a different game. Where was our individual pace? What about the almost non-existent first touch of every single one of our individual players? Yes, the Germans functioned better as a team, but they did so by using basic *individual* skills which none of our players had (or have ever had).
I don’t think 4-5-1 would have solved much, if anything (the first goal for example bypassed the entire team formation). We’d still have been outmaneuvered in midfield, and we would still have those relatively lumbering donkeys Gerrard and Milner (cf. Podolski, Oezil) providing the width required to make the system work.
Now, if you had instead said “England had *better known* players on the pitch …” or “better paid …”, I’d have fully agreed 🙂
Excellently put, Gaz.
Harry is far too clever to want the job.
If you look back at the results from since we qualified, the national team has been shit, winning unconvincingly in friendlies against those two world powerhouses, Mexico and Japan.
Not one of those who were on the pitch in any of the four matches should be allowed to play for England again.
The player who was in the best form, position for position, never got a kick, Joe Hart.
What is the point of a squad if some never play?
Are they not good enough?
If so, why are they in the squad?
They are supposed to be back up for injury or lack of form or yellow/red card problems.
So if the team performs shitely in the first two games, BRING IN THE OTHERS, and give them a chance, since they are supposedly as good as the “first” team!!!
Football really is a simple game,must be with all those dummies on the pitch, so it’s not rocket science to make wholesale changes.
Makes a lovely change slagging off someone other than Ward though!!!!!
FOWB
Hi Clive – well i you won`t slag off Wardy I will. Apparently he`s had another cartilege operation at the end of the season, no doubt he will be on the bench early season, and his contiuing inept performances will be blamed on his lack of pre season.
On the bench of course, the future is players to cover two positions, ie not Foley or Ward who aren`t up to premier class, but Stearman for example who is.
I agree with comments made, SWP and lennon are on their day excellent, but they are few and far between, Johnson on the left wing has electric pace and a football brain, real shame we couldn`t get him. Why play 2 midget strikers against big German centrehalfs, its was like SEB and Keogh playing together, no height – no hope. I watched the game at Old Trafford while we were playing the Aussies on Sunday and we nearly threw that away, at least that England side won looked to be the part. No sulking please we are wolves fans.
Foley not Premiership class? You’ve got to be kidding mate. Foley has all the class to make it at right back, only the form of Zubar kept hiom out. In the not too distant future, I see Zubar becoming our main centre back and Foley claiming the right back place.
Agree with second point, not enough of the players can cover more than one place. Why take Warnock when Lescott can play left back and centre back.
The team is packed full of power and pace. Big lads who’ve bullied their way through football since they were kids. Aside from Joe Cole I don’t think there’s 1 player with the ability to manipulate the ball, with both feet, the way the top sides do. Gerrard is a case in point. Even when he plays well it seems to be moments like the WHU/Liverpool Cup Final where he powers a shot in from an unbelievable distance and generally runs around like a blue arsed fly. Does anyone remember Drogba’s goal at Bolton last year? Amazing 1 touch stuff with Deco involved, goal of the season for me. I could never imagine a group of English players scoring that goal. I mean we applaud a guy for throwing his head at a ball rolling along the ground. John ‘Lionheart’ Terry!! My arse. More like the moron tin-man. My memory of the Wizard of Oz isn’t what it was but you get my point.
Im with you all the way Kwolf!
My only comment is that the team was packed with “power and pace” – I didn’e see much of either in the four games I watched! They were probably all “too tired” – bless! £100k+ per week and not fit enough? Representing their country should be motivation enough to carry them through!
Overall I’m not too annoyed. The Wolves are what ‘entertains’ me week in week out. I knew who Bully was before I knew who Gary Lineker was. I generally shout abuse to the people of Sandwell and Surrey during matches, cheering alongside them is unnatural. The World Cup is like a summer holiday – something to look forward to and enjoy. The Wolves is like a beer after work on a Friday – totally necessary and more consistently enjoyable.
Couldn’t agree more. I only really get behind England at the major tournaments when Wolves’ season is over. International breaks bloody annoy me. The England players are a lot like me; they weren’t really all that bothered, but they’ll turn out for their clubs come August.
Me too – cared more about seeing Adlene come on for Algeria personally.
Shame he didn’t rattle one into the top corner against England to bump up his value!
After commenting after the USA game on twitter I posted “I’m used to disappointment, I’m a Wolves fan”
One Mr Jody Craddock promptly told me to fuck off.
Greatest day of my life.
Classic. Was that the real Craddock?
Yeah. It was hilarious, he apologised the following morning
How come there are no England fans that band together to make a “you’ve let us down again” banner?
Oh well England on the way home, after four games I realised that I was right in my head all along – I knew we didn’t have a chance.
Since my ‘coming of age’ world cup in 1990 every four years I have had to listen to the media tell us ‘this is our best chance in years’, we have the ‘golden generation’ – blah,blah,blah! For the last two world cups I haven’t fallen for it (and probably never will again).
I wondered if my lack of enthusiasm was due to the success Wolves have enjoyed over the past two years. But after watching those overpaid bunch of nobs it makes me proud of the commitment Wolves have played with over the past few seasons.
Even players like Ward that get slated (and rightly so after some performances) show greater passion for the shirt then any of those England muppets. All of those players have the skills, fitness etc but not the attitude required to win at international level. So sorry you were bored in a five star hotel for a few hours each day, so sorry you had a boss that wouldn’t take any of your sh*t – how terrible for you all!
Role on the first home game against stoke, I cant wait for these england “stars” to roll into the molineux next season where intend to boo them all and attempt to start a chant of “World cup wanker, world cup wanker”
Redknapp wont want the job when it comes to it – as there is a lot less scope for bungs in international football