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| [photo by Philosophy Football] |
- by Adam Huntington, writing from Dundee, Scotland
The game started well for the English, controlling it competently for the first 20 minutes or so, then they just seemed to fade away. Ashley Cole was subbed thirty minutes in after picking up a suspected ankle injury, which possibly unsettled England, because almost immediately, the Swiss scored. Barnetta's freekick, dangerously whipped into the box, left Ferdinand jumping under the ball and Hart with no chance. No more than three minutes later Barnetta had scored again, from another free kick. From a wide left position, he smashed the ball through a ludicrously flimsy wall and into the net at Hart's near post. 2-0 down, England had a figurative mountain to climb. Fortunately for them, Jack Wilshere was playing, the only Englishman with some drive and determination in the first half. On the thirty seventh minute, Wilshere went on a powerful run that ended in a penalty, with his Arsenal teammate Djourou bringing him down unfairly. Lampard stepped up and duly dispatched, but score remained 2-1 at half time. Ashley Young came on after the break and instantaneously brightened up their attacking play, scoring in all of six minutes. With the score now level, most would have thought that the English would go on and take the game to the Swiss. It just never happened. They were decidedly lackluster up front, unable to capitalise on a nightmarish performance from Johann Djourou and the unfit Senderos, who had only played three games this season. They found themselves fruitlessly chasing the ball for long periods, with Inler and Dzemaili doing a very efficient job of keeping the ball from them, specifically in the closing stages. The English can blame the result on a combination of fatigue and bad luck if they want, but the sole reason England didn't win is because they're not as good as their fans are led to believe.
The English media play an unmistakably large part in masking how average their team is, creating a cloud of confidence which envelopes and deludes the fans. Andy Townsend, who played for Ireland, but clearly wants to be English, is a particularly bad offender. His refusal to acknowledge that the Swiss were actually the better team was infuriating on Saturday. Adrian Chiles managed to patronise the visitors seven seconds after the final whistle blew, saying; "They were actually not bad them boys." with an embarrassed grin on his face. The problem is that this happens with almost every England game, newspapers and pundits give fans this overconfidence in their players, and then when they inevitably don't play to expectation, uproar ensues. Poor excuses are dug up; "the players were tired", "it's the manager's fault for playing conservatively at home". Most fans seem to swallow this down, and suddenly scapegoat Capello's in crisis, when in reality Capello's doing the best he can with the players available. It's not Capello's fault that Darren Bent missed an absolute sitter which would have won the game, thus preventing the excuses and accusations from the papers. There's a small number of fans who get defensive, and claim that their opponents were actually a good team. Unfortunately this doesn't apply to Switzerland, who are, like England, an average team. Scott Parker, the man who captained the Premier League's worst team, started, possibly just because of how much praise he'd received from the media. Parker's a good player and was inspired for West Ham this season, but he's simply not good enough to play internationally. With the exception of Wilshere and Young, the entire England team are nowhere near good enough to mount a serious challenge in the coming European Championships. Ferdinand is really showing his age, Terry's movement is getting poor, and Glen Johnson is a full back who can't defend. Lampard looks firmly past his best and Milner only played half the season for his club.
England's next game is a friendly against the Dutch in August. By then, the disappointment from this game will have died out and the papers will call that game a chance to prove to the world just how good England are, by taking on, and hopefully beating, last years World Cup finalists. Based on Saturdays performance, they'll be lucky to score. I'd like to see the national papers adopt a much more honest opinion, starting with the admission that England are just not that good a side. This is undeniably true when it comes to tournament football, with the exception of Italia '90 and England '96, two tournaments that resulted in semi final finishes. Concentration deserts them and they fizzle out with a whimper. The media usually blame their exit on a refereeing decision (latest World Cup) or one player (Beckham at France '98) when in truth, their exit is simply down to their average ability coupled with their inability to play in tournaments. Nothing else. Being Scottish, I've not exactly got a high horse to sit on, but at least the Scottish media isn't ignorant to the fact that we're not as good as a lot of other countries, and that's the reason we don't win games. It's high time the English media adopted the same attitude, because the national team's latest performances have enforced just how average they really are, leaving fans frustrated and melancholily nostalgic.
