iSporter Jigar Mehta presents his analysis of England's chances at the Football World Cup in South Africa.
This country has given the world renowned games like Football, Cricket and Lawn Tennis.
Their weakest link though is their inability to perform at a bigger stage; with the greatest case in point being Football.
Lawn Tennis had its origin in England; The oldest & the greatest grand slam tournament 'Wimbledon' which is considered the most prestigious event in this sport has roots in this sporting country.
They have disappointed their fans on the home turf too. It has been 74 long years since they have won the most prestigious event or for the matter of fact any grand slam since Fred Perry in 1936.They haven't won the Davis cup since 1936 and never won the Fed cup.
Coming to the most beautiful game on the Earth and the most popular game in their country, they have disappointed their fans and the entire country. They haven't won the most prestigious FIFA world cup since 1966, an Olympic gold medal since 1912 and never won the UEFA European football championship.
Well this speaks a lot about their performance on the highest stage. This time around the most prestigious event is back in the African Safari.
All the top teams will be fighting for ultimate glory. Four time winners Italy will be hoping to keep the prized possession at home while top seeds Brazil & the Euro 2008 winners Spain are hungry for victory.
But the team most desperate to win the cup would be the originators of the game.
They have been in stupendous form lately under their new coach Fabio Capello deploying new strategies & different formation.
They raced through to the World cup finals winning 9 out of the 10 world cup qualification matches going on to top the table.
They qualified for the 2010 World Cup by winning their first eight matches, including 4-1 and 5-1 victories against Croatia, who knocked England out of Euro 2008. Their sole defeat was in Ukraine after they secured their qualification.
They were the highest scorers in the European section with 34 goals & finished with second highest points tally with 27 behind Spain (30) who won all their qualifier games in the European section.
Besides all this the main cause of concern is their performance when it comes to the big stages.
Their strongest area of play is their midfield with likes of Gareth Barry, Steven Gerrard, and Frank Lampard.
Frank Lampard has been in great form lately for his club side Chelsea, assisting & scoring heavily. Also the physical presence of Barry coupled with Steven Gerrard’s brilliance is a huge advantage.
Their defence is world class with rock solid center back John Terry & captain Rio Ferdinand along with Ashley Cole & Glen Johnson filling in the positions of Left back and Right back.
The biggest asset in their striking Arsenal is ‘Wayne Rooney’. Its important that they utilize such potent talent at his best suited position as an out-and-out centre-forward, a position where he has top scored in the premier league for Manchester United. For the National team he has been used largely as a second striker playing off the target-man Emile Heskey or Peter Crouch or as a link between the midfield and the pace of Jermain Defoe.
Their chances of winning will depend on how this world class striker is utilized along with the physically dominant Heskey.
He was the 2nd highest goal scorer in the world cup qualifiers in European section with 9 goals.
In the words of the highest goal scorer for England, Alan Shearer: “every country needs a great player like Rooney to have a chance.’’
They have a relatively easy draw this time around and would be favourites to pass through the group stage comfortably.
Well the cricket team this time around has successfully removed the chokers tag with a spectacular win in the world cup T20.
Spectacular because they were underdogs going into the tournament and managed to win it undefeated.
This time around the expectations of the soccer fans would be even greater taking into account their trophy drought in major tournaments.
This time they are deprived of the experience of their second highest capped player David Beckham. The other worries are the injuries to important players.
With a new captain in ranks along with a new coach and the controversies and problems surrounding the team, the removal of John terry as captain and its after effects on him as well as on the team’s performance and most importantly carrying the tag of ‘Chokers’ for all these years.
The question to be asked is “Will history repeat itself this time too?”; or will this strong team with ample confidence and to their strengths, pressing style, playing with passion and pace do surmount the feat that they have not conquered for the last 54 years?
“History teaches everything including the future.” and England would be banking on this adage for the upcoming World cup 2010 campaign.
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Asif Khan
said:
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... Nice one Jigar. I don't think the English are gonna win this time either. In England there is culture of blaming everything on the manager and constantly saying that they have the best players in the World but it's just the manage who was crap and they were cheated by XYZ etc etc. The fact that they don't ever win is that they are not good enough and over hyped! But they won't accept it, now that they claim to have one of the best manager in the world, lets see who they blame for this years failure. |
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