So England did it again. After a very frustrating qualifying
campaign, personified by having to listen to Adrian Chiles on ITV talk for an
eternity as the game was rained off in Poland, England have qualified for
Brazil.
After blowing away the minnows the Three Lions struggled to
deliver decent footballing performances in Ukraine, Poland and Montenegro
against teams that are mediocre with a few stars dotted around the pitch. The
irony was that we are a team of stars with mediocrity dotted played on the
pitch.
We managed to scrape by and then with two games to go and an
injection of youthful attacking threat the boys in white delivered two wins and
two good performances to go with it. Just in time then. I don’t mean just in
time for us to qualify, I mean just in time for us to believe that we can
actually go to Brazil in the summer and do something. Just in time to hope and
just in time to believe and here are my reasons why.
1. Chelsea won the Champions League so England
can win the World Cup:
Firstly, well done to Chelsea for winning
the Champions a couple of seasons ago but let’s face it they were not the best
footballing side around; just like England. Chelsea were an organised,
combative outfit who defended for their lives, rode their luck and when an
opportunity came they took it. They beat the model of Spanish football
Barcelona in the Semi-finals and the model German style of Bayern Munich in the
Final. It’s Germany and Spain who are two of the biggest threats. They are better
than us, there is no denying that but as Chelsea showed England, winning the
game is all that mattered. There’s is no need to be pretty and nice, just fight
for your lives boys.
2. We’ll be Seeded Second:
This is a good thing. Let’s be honest even
if we were seeded first we would make a pigs ear out of it, struggle our way to
second spot. The good news this time is that we will have one of the favourites
in our group, which means (if we get out of our group) we can’t meet them until
the final. So hopefully we will get Brazil, Germany or Spain, get through with
one of them with the other two having to play each other before they meet us. I
am not normally one for the easy route option but we will need all the help we
can get.
3. The South Americans are Beatable:
I will do this alphabetically. Argentina do
have Messi, Higuain, Aguero and Tevez (plus a whole lot of other guys playing
in South America that we have never heard of) yet history dictates that they
have never been capable of finding a system that accommodates them all and that
gets the best out of them all. If they manage this then I think they could be
the team to beat but also think it is more likely that they will hit
self-destruct by re-appointing Diego Maradona to the task or something just as crazy.
Brazil, as seen in the Confederations Cup
are good and even better due to the home support. However, this Brazil team is
not of the standard of past Brazilian dream teams. We should give them the
respect they deserve but as Mexico showed in the Olympics if you can get in
their faces and not let them have it their own way then they can be beaten.
Uruguay, they are not even there yet. They
are likely to be but they have struggled too. For me the Cavani, Suarez
partnership is not as formidable as the last world cups Forlan, Suarez combo.
But on their day they can probably beat anyone.
The Others; Colombia, Chile and Ecuador.
One name Falcao. Colombia are said to be a dark horse. I am not sure why.
Saying that England should beat these nations because we are England is silly.
These teams will give us problems, especially having the home continent
advantage yet at the same time we should be equal to them and beat them because
we are England.
4. The Youthful Injection:
So Andros Townsend and Daniel Sturridge looked
mightily impressive and Wellbeck did well backing them up. Yet there is a long
old season ahead of them and I fear that Townsend may not get played at Spurs.
But suddenly England have a lot of youngsters emerging, Wilshere, Cleverly,
Chamberlain, Ravel Morrison, Barkley, and a lot can happen in a season. Just
look at the careers of the Welshmen Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey. One year they
weren’t doing too much to talk about on a football pitch and then suddenly they
are fantastic. So why can’t one of our English lads make such drastic
improvements before they head off to Brazil?
5. The Last Hoorah:
And finally for some of the so called “Golden
Generation” players, such as Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Stevie G, this will
probably be their last world cup and their last chance to show how “Golden”
they really are. Maybe just maybe they will give us a last Hoorah to remember.
Maybe this is blind optimism but hey it’s time to believe,
otherwise what is the point?
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