Who'd be a member of England's World Cup Squad right now ? Any volunteers ? No, I thought not. Me ? Frankly, I'd rather be sitting in front of that Utah firing squad.
So spare a thought for the unlucky 23 who are there just now and the manager and all his staff. Don't be full of Scottish glee at their misfortune because, well, at least they are there while the Scots have failed to qualify for the party.
Their lack of comfort at failing to win a couple of matches at the World Cup goes beyond costing some of us a few quid at the bookies. It says a lot more about the people who play the game, those who watch it and the general culture of the society that produced both.
Of course England, with the talent available to Fabio Cappello, should have been able to beat USA and Algeria. They did not although it should be noted they didn't lose either. Of the factors the players and management have direct control over which produced the results perhaps the most important are player fatigue and the doggedness of their opponents.
Tiredness should not be overlooked. Yes they are athletes but the demands placed on their bodies to perform at their optimum is something mere mortals have very little grasp of. They have all spent eight months making the English Premier League the most watched and talked about football competition on the planet and the physical and mental exertions that places on them are great.
It is not just a game of football. Manchester United versus Chelsea is not like the Sunday amateur game at the local public park. Unless you see the effort required to be a professional at close quarters it is a difficult thing to appreciate. They do work hard. It's not simply a case of running about for a couple of hours each day then swanning off to the local pool hall or gambling away their millions (although that happens as well). Anyone who thinks it's a cushy number should try it.
So after all that they are now expected to be at the top of their form after a long season when any sensible person at this time of the year is contemplating a fortnight summer holiday. If office workers think like that, why not Wayne Rooney ?
And then there is the other main factor; the opposition. England may look at their three group opponents as potential lambs to the slaughter but from the opposite perspective there is the real chance of causing an upset.
No doubt the USA, Slovenia and Algeria have been looking forward to their day in the (winter) sun for months. And their coaches have been planning how to stifle superior opponents for just as long. No less a person that Jean-Paul Satre once mused that footballl would be an easier game if it wasn't for the presence of your opponents, words which Cappello can meditate on now with some bitter experience.
The case in point is the USA. They were gifted a draw they might not have achieved on their own merits but the fact still remains that their level of tactical awareness and preparedness far outstripped anything they managed against Slovenia in their next match. It was very much a case of going after the English and letting the other games take care of themselves.
And as if these factors produced a dangerous thicket to be negotiated with care there come the ones over which Cappello and his men have no control. Apparently, a nation expects and that expectation, on current evidence, only adds another obstacle to success.
Every World Cup since football's regeneration in England started 20 years ago brings more and more of that country's population into the World Cup vortex. It's not so much about the game and sporting pride as the national interest.
Only the people who run the UK government face the kind of pressure placed on an England team entering the World Cup. The players are not workers trying to achieve the highest goal their job allows, they are representatives of the nation; a nation that believes only in its own greatness and senses a chance to seize it every four years on the football pitch. 1966 and all that. But that same nation feels no need to offer anything of its own to help achieve that goal. It is a demand for power fuelled by other people's effort. A right but without any need for responsibility. Ask what your nation can do for you, not what you can do for your nation.
The English media fuels a sense of entitlement without the need for self-sacrifice. I imagine before a ball was kicked in South Africa the English team felt weight down by all of this. Just look at Robert Green's face as he stood in the player's tunnel waiting to walk out onto the pitch before the USA game. Contrast that with the South African team singing their way onto their own field of (shattered) dreams.
And when it all goes pear-shaped, as it surely must, the blame game starts. People with no idea of what it takes to be a professional athlete become experts. Fans whose only effort is to walk to the ground from the boozer get the right to hound and pilory people.
And before you start on the "I pay your wages" line, consider this. The money England fans paid to watch their team under-perform in South Africa goes straight into FIFA coffers, Rooney and co never see a penny of it. Even their multi-million pound club contracts come from Rupert Murdoch, not the fans.
Perhaps the best bit is the sudden conversion from ordinary punter to tactical expert, where supporters feel free to sound off about not just the failings of the players but the inability of the manager to get the best out of them.
The sport follows the sport. The blood-letting, the recriminations and the players' wounded response all combines into a downward spiral that only makes things worse.
The only way out is honesty. Let England the nation and England the team draw up some parameters. The players should show humility, respect and even start to downplay their own chances of ever becoming world champions. That could lead the way for a nation to re-assess its relationship with the national team, accept its limitations and sooth passions in danger of going wildly out of control. The only other option is a not-so-slow descent into national psychosis.
No comments:
Post a Comment