Let them stay hungry until they prove themselves in a real game in a real tournament.Īs for Germany, here too you don't want to read too much into things and not just because of those aforementioned friendly results. These guys have achieved very little so far, both with England and - except perhaps for Gary Cahill - for their clubs as well. That's encouraging, but Hodgson put it best when he worried that this team would forget "a lot of the criticisms we've had in the past" and get "lifted up on to a pedestal." They didn't freeze as we've seen England teams do in the past. On the road, they beat Spain 1-0 but fell 2-0 to France.įar more significant than the result for England was the performance in the second half and the psychological lift to players such as Dele Alli, Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane. Or that Germany's record in such games since the World Cup shows that, at home, they have lost 2-1 to the United States, drawn 2-2 with Australia and lost 4-2 to Argentina. Never mind the fact that it was a friendly. And heck, if you beat the world champions, you're allowed to feel good about yourself. It's unhealthy and it's dysfunctional but it is what it is.
Suddenly there's discussion about "world-class this" and "world-class that" and how, really, few nations are as talented as England. Win - even if it's in a prestige friendly such as Saturday's 3-2 victory against Germany - and there's talk of Golden Generations.
Roy Hodgson can't manage, while the players are either spoiled, lazy brats or stiffs who aren't good enough and the entire English game is due a massive "root and branch" - yes, that's the sort of terminology the country's Football Association likes to use - review. Nobody reacts to football results in the extreme, knee-jerk way that the English media does. Gabriele Marcotti, Senior Writer, ESPN FCĮngland have much to prove, Germany transition, Brazil World Cup worry
BRAZILIAN SLIP N SLIDE SOCCER UPGRADE
You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser
0 kommentar(er)
