I Believe That We Can Win

I believe that we can win." If you have not heard this phrase at the world cup, you have not seen the USA play in the World Cup. The US have made the last sixteen which was the stated goal of the coach Jurgen Klinsmann.  The achievement cannot be underestimated.  The group they were in contained three sides in Germany, Ghana and Portugal. All these sides were blessed with high quality, high value individuals. The US team by contrast is a team in the true sense of the word. They are a team without superstars, however they have a tremendous team ethic.

The irony about the US style of football is that is reminiscent of the Premier league. A game based on high work rate and high energy. The US team have worked harder than many teams with the central midfielder Bradley covering more ground than any other player. They are an example of what a coach with limited resource's can do. If you look back to to the Charlton, Republic of Ireland sides of the early 90's.  They had a plan and stuck to it. Klinsmann has done the same with the US side they are fit and strong and stick to the strategy that he has laid out. Contrast this with England; Hodgson has been lauded for his policy of bringing in youth. This has masked a fairly serious issue that the England side was without any kind of strategy. If they did have a strategy it was either not obvious or England did not have the players to carry it out.

Maybe the English game is suffering from arrogance due to all the players playing in a high quality national league. Maybe the arrogance is historical,  football in England has historically been an insular game. It is time to realise that England will not produce  enough high quality footballers to win a world cup in the way many fans expect. They have too often on the past tried to fit every good player into the side. Now is the time to define the style and fit the players most appropriate into it. Until then and during this world cup I will be following the US and hoping that they can shock the world.

National Passion and Pride

England fans are often fond of saying that the England football team play with passion. The players may be lacking technical skills, they may struggle to keep the ball but they play with passion, they play for the three lions. Whether that was true in the past, in this world cup the same old statements have been used but the England performances have shown none of this passion. Contrast this with other countries like Chile, USA or Costa Rica. These countries show not only passion but commitment and a willingness to follow a plan.

What is the reason for this? If you believe the media you would say that the players have it too easy, they want for  nothing in the premier league, so why put themselves through the hassle of the England team. I believe that it is simpler than that, I believe that the English game is so parochial that the idea of coming together as a squad is too difficult a concept for the players.  Liverpool hates Manchester United. Arsenal hates Tottenham. These divisions are so deeply set that it flows down to the players, leading to poor England performances. Is this a simplistic view? Maybe!

Waddle Rants, England Stirs

On Thursday night, England were knocked out of the football World Cup. Not unusual, any observer of World Cups since 1966 will tell you that England goes to a world cup full of hope, then gets knocked out.  This then causes anguish and much gnashing of teeth. The difference this time was there was no expectations  at all. However; grim frustration has set in. The English game is richer, than any other game on the world. It is regularly touted as a league that cannot be beaten, for excitement, atmosphere,  marketing in general. This in contrast to the national team whose performances in the recent history of international  have gone steadily downhill since 1966.

On Thursday Chris Waddle , former England winger articulated the frustration of a nation. The crux of his rant was that since the inception of the Premier league the England team has suffered, as the FA, the custodians of the English game have got richer. The original idea of the Premier league was to help make the England team better as fixture lists were meant to be cut. Instead the game has been flooded with high quality foreign players. This means players who are English qualified are not getting exposed to high quality, high pressure football.  Unfortunately this has been happening for so long that  the strength and depth of the English squad is so damaged that the poor tournament play will only continue.

Is this a grim view? Yes! But we have a blueprint for disaster and that is the Scottish game, Scotland regularly qualified for the world cup and produced great players.  Now, Scotland are in crisis,  their game is broke and this is due to the largesse of the 90's where Scotland was importing players and managers. Yes England that is the future and I am not sure whether it can be stopped.

The Post Colonial Football Era

It's been a really long time since I committed any of sports thoughts to the world wide Web. Why? Well life gets in the way! Writing is however a discipline that should be practised.

Watching the world cup has been fantastic the football has been exciting and free flowing. Almost refreshing. I have been excited by this tournament in a way that I had not thought possible. What is the source of this new found excitement? It is the emergence of teams that have previously never been considered as contenders that has excited me. The US, Costa Rica, Mexico to name but three. All these teams have played in different styles but they are willing to play without fear. The biggest result, Chile beating Spain,  the former Lords and masters of South America beaten by Chile. Chile played with such abandon and excitement that Spain were overwhelmed.

The opposite of Chile and Costa Rica is England a country supposedly steeped in football, but we're abject and lifeless in defeat. Vive la Revolution.  Long may it continue. Before long the premier league will be back and England will be back thinking that exciting league equals successful national side. Hopefully the memories of the world cup will mean that that myth is debunked.

The Lance Armstrong story

Lance Armstrong has risen to the top of his sport. In the process destroying lives, but most importantly shattering illusions. His first book is called 'its not about the bike' and was a tremendously inspirational read. In fact it was the one book that I know many non readers got into too.

The interview he did this week was at best a token apology at worst it was a cynical attempt to do what he has always done. Manipulate the media. Granted Oprah Winfrey did jot press him on any of the key issues but never the less the only time he appeared sorry was when he was talking about his son. The impression that was left I believe was a man who was more sorry that the evidence was so over whelming that he had to confess. Not that he was sorry for doing it.

Lance had one aspect to his defence that everyone else was doing it. The problem with this defence is that it is an attempt  at blaming someone else. Contrast with Tyler Hamilton who eventually did a mea culpae and you have a true picture of the situation.

So what next for Lance, personally I hope prison for perjury and racketeering. Whether this will happen is another matter.

England's long road to redemption

The autumn internationals are nearly over for another year and again the topic of English rugby rears its head. After an initial promising first season as England coach Stuart Lancaster is having that difficult second album. In music terms the band knows what it is all about in the first album. Come the second album the band has started to feel full of its self importance and forgotten the reason they are there.

For English rugby last season was all about establishing English principles of rugby. Tough forward play and confidence in set piece play. Don't worry about what the rest of the world is doing England plays the English way and it works. This season things seem to be going slightly wrong. The set piece looks shaky to say the least, both the scrum and lineout are unreliable but without a consistent reason for the unreliability, different things go wrong every week. Forward play is unsure and weak with an urgency to play the ball out wide without doing the grunt work up front. These issues are compounded by a captain who is making the wrong calls for penalties and lineouts. Next week England face a great All Black side a good performance will give England some redemption, another stuttering performance and England will be under pressure for the six nations.

Why do people stop playing Sport?

I love watching sport. I find it inspiring and exciting most of all unpredictable. Watching sport is great but playing is better and far more fun. The great irony of our society is that sporting stars are adored but nobody plays sport everybody has an opinion on the England football team but how many people lace the boots up on a Saturday afternoon.

The developed world over people are getting fatter and media companies have paid more and more for access to sports rights. It's like an inverse ratio the more people play for sports the more people watch the more unhealthy people have got.

Just an observation.