GOD, I wish this bleedin’ World Cup would just end. Now that England are out (killing the “Anyone But England” campaign in one fell swoop, unless they come up with a “ahve telt ye” T-shirt instead) there’s really not much else to look forward too, except the final between Brazil and Germany (2-2 AET, 2-4 pen).
And don’t get me wrong, I’ve no problem with England winning the World Cup, so just because they’re out does not mean I’m dancing around the room, unlike my Irish wife who sees England’s elimination as part of the continuing punishment for 800 years of British oppression and the unjust and unlawful occupation of the Six Provinces.
It just means that the World Cup coverage on the BBC will take a complete nosedive as their interest in proceedings takes a backseat while they do their best to get enthusiastic about the dross that’s left.
Tags: England, Scotland, World Cup 2010
I heard Craig Brown talking about this. His arguments sort of gloss over just how bad we’ve been when we actually get to World Cups though.
The head to head against US is maybe not as important as World Cup record. They’ve gone past round 1 four times in nine qualifications we’ve done it zero times in our eight trips.
I actually think you can look at this being a British problem. Obviously England with greater wealth, greater talent pool will have higher expectation than Scotland. But both countries always seem to fail. In England’s case fail to prove they are top four or five nation, in Scotland’s case fail to qualify or get out of group if they do.
It’s not just the fault of imports because this has been the reality for both countries since they bothered turning up in the 1950s.
Anyone But England and Scotland’s Not Playing only really hide the fact that when it comes to technical deficiency and psychological weakness we’re all in this together.
The problem with Brown’s tactics (and what would probably have happened in the Wattienaccio era too), is that in tournament play, sitting in and hoping to nick something is never going to get you out a group.
It’ll probably be the same under the equally-cautious Levein, but let’s worry about that when we get there. Second place in the 2012 qualifiers is do-able if he can get this bunch of players motivated and focussed. I agree with Brown that the current players are good enough, but have been scuppered by poor management (Vogts hanging around long enough to ruin 2006 qualifying, Burley 2010) or horrific draws (McLeish did well to get it so close in 2008).
Watching the “second-tier” European nations in South Africa, like Greece, Slovenia, and Slovakia, Scotland aren’t “much” worse than them. If the team get their act together, Scotland should be up against these guys in qualification play-offs more regularly.
Yeah, with a slice of luck I actually think Scotland might have gotten out of Group C had we been there(!), but it’s our capacity for the ludicrous (losing 4-0 to Norway, appointing Vogts, McGregor/Ferguson, Ally McLeod etc.) that gets us into trouble. Quite often we are beaten not by our opponents, but by years of incompetent management, poor facilities, lack of competition etc. The fighting spirit gets you so far, but at some point you’ll need the skills to progress.
England’s problems are not that much different to ours, except they have the means (i.e. money, supporters and a thriving league structure) to do something about it. The fact they won’t is down to a bed of their own making, namely that it’s quicker and less risky to import an expensive foreign player to plug that gap than to promote through the youth system.
Scottish teams don’t have that luxury, so I am expecting that in a few years time, Scottish youth football will see a dramatic improvement, providing the McLeish report is implemented.
On the subject, here’s an excellent article looking at England’s problems, by comparing them to the Germans:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2010/0629/1224273557820.html
Yeah, saw that. Very good analysis. I don’t know much about German league football, but I’m sensing that it’s not a mickey-mouse league, unlike the Dutch one. That might explain why the majority of the German squad play in Germany, while the majority of Dutch players play abroad. I wonder how that works in other succesfull footballing nations whose international players play mainly in their own domestic leagues – Italy for example ..