No fun. But no tears.

It would be nice if we could say it was fun while it lasted, but it really wasn’t. It would be nice if we’d won some new friends while we were there, but no one will miss us. We were a disappointment, an irrelevance and ultimately, an embarrassment. Goodbye England. Goodbye Golden Generation. Good riddance as far as the rest of the World Cup is concerned.

I didn’t cry although I do care. I wasn’t surprised although I was disappointed. I’d love to see England succeed, but like you, I have become conditioned to their failure. I refuse to waste my emotions on the men involved yesterday, but I do worry about those who’ll have to take up the baton tomorrow. I will continue to watch the World Cup and now I can actually enjoy it, without the overwhelming angst that goes with watching the three lions.

Please, please don’t waste your time cursing the lack of goalline technology and convincing yourself that we would have won the match if Frank Lampard had been correctly awarded his goal. That was a moment that embarrassed the World Cup and should humilate world football’s top man Sepp Blatter, who flatly refuses to discuss the issue. But it’s smoke and mirrors as far as England are concerned and if we are to ever move forward we MUST NOT use it as a sticking plaster to cover the problem. We were horribly exposed and totally outplayed yesterday by a nation that doesn’t do golden generations. Germany don’t fete and annoint a group of individuals and then continually forgive their failures and gloss over their weaknesses. Germany constantly renew themselves and make sure they turn up fresh and ready for every major tournament. We just order the suits and hope Lamps and Stevie G will sort it out in the midfield. In terms of organisation and attitude, they make us look like amateurs.

Which is exactly what they did on the pitch yesterday. Their tactics weren’t anything special, they were set up the way most top teams are these days in the Champions League. But they pushed and pulled England’s inflexible formation all over the pitch. We had no answers, in fact it looked as if we didn’t understand the questions.

As a nation we like to find someone to blame. Start with the manager if you must. I was disappointed with Fabio Capello’s handling of this tournament, but I’m not sure that making him the scapegoat is going to help. At least now he understands the scale of the problem. Let him try again. It’s his mess, he’s a decent manager, so why not see if he can fix it. Blame Wayne Rooney for his bafflingly annonymous displays if you want. Blame the defence for being awful yesterday. Blame the midfield for being just plain wrong and unable to cope with Germany’s elegant movement. Blame English Football for putting club before country and milking the cash cow of the premier league at the expense of the national team. Blame the Baby Bentley Generation who have the world handed to them on a plate and as a result cannot possibly understand the concept of responsibility. We can blame ourselves if we like, for the pressure we put on our brave boys with our huge levels of expectation.

Or just don’t bother. Now the bags are packed and the wool has been pulled from the eyes, just how far did we think we’d get with Gareth Barry as holding midfielder ? With Matthew Upson in the team ? Without a proper first choice goalkeeper ? With a centre forward who doesn’t score goals ? With one captain injured, one captain playing out of position on the left and one captain agitating for change and being horribly exposed for his lack of pace ? Our squad wasn’t really very good and nor were any of our performances. We like to think that we are less than the sum of our parts, but are we ? Perhaps that’s the sum total. That’s worth crying about. That’s worth worrying about. It’s what lies ahead that worries me. As the Golden Generation exit the stage, who will replace them and will they be any better ? There may be dark days to come, or maybe, just maybe, we will finally look ourselves in the mirror and decide whether we are serious about these tournaments and whether we are prepared to change things in order to help us succeed.

So there’s lots to talk about. But it can wait. Just sit back and enjoy the REAL football at the rest of this World Cup. It’ll be fun now.

I'LL SEE YOUR OZIL AND KLOSE AND RAISE YOU GERRARD AND ROONEY

Momentum. It’s all about momentum. At least that’s what I’m going to tell myself between now and Sunday afternoon, because I have a hunch the momentum might be with England, not Germany. Oh, and it’s all in the head. I’ll be telling myself that as well because I think England (unusually) might be in a better state of mind than their old enemies on Sunday. So it’s all about momentum and it’s all in the head. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as frustrated as the next England fan about World Cup 2010 so far. USA was typically uninspiring England fare punctuated with a ridiculous individual error. Algeria was the worst, just the worst performance ever and deserved every bit of anger and bile it received in the media. Then Slovenia was OK. Just OK, nothing more than that, but there was evidence of the green shoots of recovery. Minus Robert Green of course. So there’s some momentum there. But what about the Germans you ask ? Have they not produced one of the best performances of the tournament so far ? Did they not top a group that looked a lot harder than England’s ? Well yes, and for that matter, yes. But with my £2 St George’s cross tinted spectacles on I’m choosing to look a little deeper at Germany’s campaign so far. They looked a well-drilled Teutonic winning machine against the Aussies, but all was not as it seemed. I was speaking to Sunderland goalkeeping legend Jimmy Montgomery the following day (about Rob Green’s howler) and he thought both of Germany’s first two goals were down to bad goalkeeping errors from former Boro man Mark Schwarzer. At that point in the game the Aussies had their best player, Tim Cahill, dubiously sent off. Fuelled by a sense of righteous indignation, the boys from Down Under continued to chase the game and Germany picked them off on the break for a couple more goals. Next up, Germany lost to Serbia. Yes, Serbia. Then they huffed and puffed to get the win they needed against a very limited looking Ghana team (and yes, I dearly wish England were playing Ghana and not Germany this weekend). As a team, Germany are decent. BUT THAT’S ALL. They don’t mesmerise like Argentina. They don’t have the balance and menace of Brazil. I don’t think they’ve got the flair of the Dutch. I think they’re about the same as England. In Mesut Ozil they have potentially one of the stars of the tournament and in Miroslav Klose they have a striker with World Cup credentials that can’t be ignored. But I’ll see your Ozil and Klose and I’ll raise you Gerrard and Rooney. THERE IS NOTHING TO BE SCARED OF. Has everyone forgotten we played them off the park and beat them in a friendly in Berlin less than 2 years ago, albeit with both teams fielding experimental line-ups. We can do this. Then there’s the strange case of Franz Beckenbauer having a pop at us this week. To recap, Der Kaiser said we had gone back to the dark ages with our football, then followed that up by saying we were stupid for finishing second in our group and we look tired and jaded. Now fair enough, if he watched the Algeria game, that was more pre-historic than dark ages. And fair enough, any scout tasked to watch Wayne Rooney during the competition is going to scribble down words like “tired and jaded”. But why fire up potential opponents like that ? I don’t understand. It makes Capello’s team talk easy and if there’s even the slightest chance that a single German player is lulled into a false sense of security, then it can only work in our favour. I’m probably overstating this, because I heard a German media bloke on 5 Live saying that Beckenbauer is still loved and revered for his achievements, but he’s now seen as a bit of an old eccentric and people take his outbursts with a pinch of salt these days. But anyway, it might be an advantage for us, so let’s big it up. I expect Capello to pick the same team (having finally found a winning formula, why change it ?) and I expect us to give our best performance of the World Cup so far. We’ve got some momentum now. We always play better against better opposition. I like the fact that the world sees us as the underdogs and, let’s face it, Rooney’s due a goal or two. It might be enough. I hope we, as a nation, can resist the war imagery over the next 48 hours and I believe we can win this football match. But if it goes to penalties, I’m leaving the room and going to stand in the back yard with a good stiff drink, because I just won’t be able to stand it.

Murphy's Law

We dreamt of a flawless, vibrant, intelligent performance. We hoped to lay down a marker so we could get up in the faces of the favourites and say "we are England and we are here to take your cup." But we didn't. Instead we found ourselves on the wrong side of Murphy's Law.

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Robert Green's ghastly error changed the nature of the match and made the headlines, but he wasn't the only problem on a night when all our chickens came home to roost.

We shouldn't get carried away though. It's not the end of the world (cup)and I'm sure we would have won if it hadn't been for Green's nightmare.

I didn't think the USA were causing many problems until that moment and I thought we were the better of two average teams who were both struggling to keep possession.

And then it happened. It's stating the obvious to say that it changed the game. But sometimes these things do fundamentally alter a game and sometimes they just send it down a wrong turn for half an hour.

This particular mistake changed everything. It energised the Americans and wasted what little confidence and rhythm we'd built up. By the end, we were grateful for the draw.

Now we're left to ponder all the same old concerns again.

We all worried about who would be in goal and with good reason as it turned out. For me, Green should go. A World Cup is not like a league season, where a player has time to play himself back into form. Its do or die, now or never and someone else should go in goal. Personally I would have picked Joe Hart for Saturday's game, but under these circumstances, the more experienced David James is perhaps the right man to take over now.

The centre of defence was already a concern after Rio Ferdinand's injury but we all talked ourselves into believing that Ledley King's fitness would hold up and that he would be an admirable replacement. That lasted precisely 45 minutes. To make matters worse, his replacement, the admirable Jamie Carragher, had a nightmare, especially against anyone with any sort of pace. So another new face is likely v Algeria. Probably Matty Upson.

The midfield was always going to throw up more questions than answers, due to the absence of Gareth Barry in the anchor role. But what we got was a real mess. Lennon wasn't as good as I hoped. Lampard was anonymous. Milner wasn't fit and I can't for the life of me fathom why it was scattergun Shaun Wright-Phillips and not the more intelligent Joe Cole who was summoned from the bench. Gerrard was good though, which was one of the few plus points. He took that goal really well.

Heskey was a plus and a minus. In one sense he did exactly what he was there to do, which was to be a pivot point for the attack. Sadly he also didn't do what he was there to do. He just doesn't score and it wasn't at all surprising that he blew his big chance in the second half. More importantly, the whole 90 minutes offered yet more ammunition to the TV pundits' theory that England need to play one up front in order to retain possession better. That one being Rooney, who was a bit off colour on Saturday. But please god there's more to come from him.

Worst of all, my previously unshakable faith in Capello was shaken a little, because he didn't have a good night either. He can't be held responsible for King's fitness and he isn't responsible for his goalie throwing one in. But he never got the midfield to work and he backed the wrong horses with his choice of keeper and with his substitutions.

On Sunday, Algeria and Slovenia proved there really is nothing to fear in this group, but the pressure has now been ratcheted up a notch. Especially in terms of topping the group and avoiding a likely second round date with the Germans.

Not a great start then, but not a total disaster either. We fell victim to Murphy's Law on Saturday, but we didn't lose and we really should still top this group. So we can still win the World Cup. But we still probably won't.

Yes. No. Probably not.

The pound shop car flags are flying and the time has come. Once again that most powerful epidemic, World Cup fever, has infected the nation. Experience tells us to be more realistic in our expectations this time, but we never really learn. At some stage the majority of the nation will be seduced by the idea that football’s coming home. All England followers will ask themselves two questions. At least we should ask ourselves two questions, but most of us will just get giddy with excitement after answering number one and not bother with question number two.



ARE ENGLAND CAPABLE OF WINNING THE WORLD CUP ? Yes.
WILL ENGLAND WIN THE WORLD CUP ? No. Probably not.


England are capable, because every dog has it's day. Forget what's happened in the past and just look at the squad. We have enough high level players to string together enough results to win one of these tournaments. Only the most blinkered England supporter would claim the squad is stuffed full of “world class” players, but phrases like “world class” are often misleading and unhelpful anyway. The bottom line is that England have enough Champions League players to form the basis of a decent unit. If we get the system right and we get on a roll and we get some luck and we grow in confidence throughout the tournament, then it can be done. Just look at Spain. Everyone thought they were a bigger bunch of underachievers than us until Euro 2008.



So why the negative answer to question two ? Oh so very many reasons. Some wounds have been self-inflicted, sometimes it’s been down to bad luck, bad decisions or bad judgement. Remember Penalties, metatarsals, red cards and wags ? The list is endless. When you consider the unseen factors like the nation's overwhelming and fierce expectation and the fawning self-regard of our “golden generation” of players, you wonder why we bother putting ourselves through it.



Because we might win.



That's the reason and that's the problem and that's also the beautiful temptation that keeps us coming back for more.



True, we haven't got the best squad of players in South Africa. But the best teams don’t always win. Italy weren’t the best team at the World Cup in 2006 and Greece certainly weren't the best team at Euro 2004. We just seem to lack the nerve for it, which is ironic for a nation that prides itself on a stiff upper lip. We can’t take a decent penalty when the chips are down. We can’t shake off our inhibition and play with freedom in the later stages. Or the group stages come to that. We’re unable to control our emotions and we often lose faith in what we are doing and how we’re planning to do it.



But this is where things might be different this time. It’s not the players, as they’re largely the same bunch of international underachievers who’ve been disappointing us for the last few years. It’s the Head Coach. Fabio Capello is a proper football manager. He knows how to win games, he knows how to win tournaments. He knows how he wants his team to play and he’s got the nerve to stick to his guns when the media and the masses are begging him to try something else. He knows Wayne Rooney is the key to everything and he knows he needs to construct his team to reflect that. He doesn’t give a toss for celebrity and wags and reputations. He knows there are better squads than his at the World Cup, but he knows that his squad are capable of beating every single one of them on their day. He has the strength of his vast experience and the courage of his convictions and if he thinks things work best when Emile Heskey plays, then Emile Heskey's going to play. He will have a plan B, but he won’t deviate from plan A just because the ranters on 606 are calling for one up front.



Of course that doesn’t mean England are going to beat Spain, or Brazil. Of course Capello is still at the mercy of fate. He won’t referee the games and he won’t take the penalties in the quarter-final shoot-out. But he won’t bow down and he won’t blink and god help me if Rooney fires, this might be our year.



But probably not.

North East XI 2009-2010

Just a personal opinion, so don’t hate me.



I do appreciate that Sunderland were operating at a higher level than Newcastle United and Middlesbrough, but I think the Magpies’ success justifies their representation in the following team.



The formation is 4-4-2 because, well, we’re English, it’s what we always do and any attempt to do anything different will only end in tears.



GOALKEEPER - Steve Harper (Newcastle United) - Sunderland’s Craig Gordon gave some of the best goalkeeping performances I’ve ever been lucky enough to see this season and began to look proper world class. But Harper had an almost flawless campaign for Newcastle. He broke the club record for clean sheets, marshalled his defence expertly and he was one of the senior members of the dressing room committee that helped put the house in order last summer.



RIGHT BACK - Danny Simpson (Newcastle United) - Alan Hutton was excellent on loan for Sunderland, but Simpson’s season was a solid body of work. A very reliable player. Interesting to see how he goes in the premier league.



LEFT BACK - Jose Enrique (Newcastle United) - Crowd favourite, proper player and evidence that not everything Sam Allardyce did at Newcastle was wrong. The Spaniard had an excellent year and he could thrive in the top flight next season.



CENTRE BACK - Michael Turner (Sunderland) - Good, old-fashioned, no nonsense, value for money defender. If you want ball playing, beautiful game centre halves then look elsewhere. But if you want an aggressive, committed, brave defender – he's your man.



CENTRE BACK - Fabricio Coloccini (Newcastle United) - Found redemption in the championship. But while Dexter Blackstock, Shefki Kuqi and Alan Lee didn't cause him to lose sleep, the old nightmares are just around the corner. Never mind Rooney, Torres and Drogba, he needs to cope better with the likes of Kenwyne Jones, John Carew and Kevin Davies.



LEFT MIDFIELD - Jonas Guttierez (Newcastle United) - I still don't think there's enough end product, but he was one of the outstanding creative players in the Championship and he'll be in the Argentina starting XI in the World Cup, so what do I know ?



CENTRE MIDFIELD - Jordan Henderson (Sunderland) - Could’ve been Lorik Cana, who was a great signing for Sunderland, but who got bogged down in the winter. It would've been Lee Cattermole, had he stayed injury free and kept up the stellar form he showed at the start of the season. Instead it's a kid who came from the youth team and looked totally at home in a premier league midfield. Big things might happen for this one.



CENTRE MIDFIELD - Kevin Nolan (Newcastle United) - The Governor. Huge influence on the dressing room at Newcastle and huge influence on the pitch as well. The canniest, most streetwise player in the Championship last season. Truly intriguing to see how he does next year.



RIGHT MIDFIELD - Adam Johnson (Ex-Middlesbrough) - Yes, I realise I’m picking a left-footed Manchester City player and playing him on the right side, but everyone seems to like him on the right side these days and this is the only way I can get any Boro representation into the starting eleven. He's a true talent. Shame he had to leave. But I suppose he had to.



STRIKER - Darren Bent (Sunderland) - First name on the team sheet. A brilliant, brilliant debut season for the Black Cats record signing. Bent is a true predator and has been a huge success on and off the pitch for Sunderland. Don’t worry about the price tag because he’s worth every penny.



STRIKER - Andy Carroll (Newcastle United) - The whole package needs improving, especially off the pitch, but he had a real breakthrough season in the championship. He’s got a fierceness that I really like in a centre forward and he’s actually a really good finisher.



SUBSTITUTES: Craig Gordon (Sunderland) John Mensah (Sunderland) Lorik Cana (Sunderland) Barry Robson (Middlesbrough) Danny Guthrie (Newcastle United) Peter Lovenkrands (Newcastle United) Kenwyne Jones (Sunderland)