they get the last laugh.
In Euro 2000 Germany finished bottom of the their group after defeat by England, they took that as an insult and while we’re still stuck with Shearer they are holding aloft the ultimate trophy.
German football went through a revolution over the last 14 years, a combination of that dismal performance in Euro 2000 which saw them going home with a group record pretty much similar to that which England departed Brazil.
Germany did then go on to be runners up in the following World Cup, but with one of the worst German sides you can remember – after all even Heskey scored
in that qualifying 5-1 thumping in Munich. In the next four tournaments there was two 3rd place finishes, another runners up and now they’ve deservedly become the first European side to win the World Cup in South America.
The best team certainly won this trophy.
England could have followed the German path to victory, in the way they couldn’t follow the Brazilian or Spanish style – they didn’t and now there’s no way they can unless the Premier League completely implodes.
It is the same old story about who can England copy after another tournament failure. Brazil, well, honestly I think the current England side can run about like headless chickens and be stuffed by this German side. Though I doubt the Germans would take as much pity on us as they did their hosts in the semi-final. 7-1 might be a pipe dream.
Copy what we think of as Brazilian football, not what was actually on show by the worst Brazil side you’ve seen in a while – think of all the bad ones, ’94 etc, they’d run rings around David Luiz – could never happen. Proper Brazilian football comes from the streets and the poverty of the streets. And that’s real poverty not what political organisations that are charitably called charities tell you is poverty in Britain. It’s not poverty that you have to share a bedroom with a sibling, after you’ve Tweeted on your iPhone about the match on Sky you watched on the 50 inch telly.
Follow the Spanish, well the Barca model – again a five one thumping by the Dutch is a very distinct possibility. It’s a style that worked in the Spanish league and in Europe but it’s something that would take a hell of a lot of time to implement in England. Really would be a grass roots revolution.
So now we have to follow the German model. Well, it has in effect taken only 14 years to reach the climax of this World Cup triumph. But then was it really starting at the levels England are, after all those with the three lions on their chest would give various parts of their anatomy to reach the stages of tournaments the Germans did while perfecting their plan.
Posted previously how England could implement short term fixes, England would have to be willing to sacrifice tournaments, such as this one gone by. They were never going to win t, so why pretend they would and why take players who are past failures with no future, who only ensure we don’t move forward.
It was funny reading a Michael Owen column in the paper the other day – his written word is as dull as his spoken word – where he talked about Germany having a team, not a collection of selfish individuals like England, and how there’s not the square pegs put in round holes and no superstars.
Well that’s not quite true, even the winners have their faults. Höwedes the squarest of square pegs not quite fitting into that round left back hole. And well Ozil, who disappeared for most of the tournament and when he did appear bottled it. Muller, World Cup top scorer last time, 10 WC goals, league titles, European titles, not a superstar?
But if Owen was told the England square pegs, their selfish players, their superstars would be dropped he’d be outraged. Because his mates Gerrard, Rooney etc would be for the chop as they fit all those categories.
Look at the way Bastian Schweinsteiger dominated that final. Isn’t that the role we were all told Gerrard could play? Did he? No, because that would mean playing for the team. Lahm went forward, Schweinsteiger was there covering, Boateng or Hummels ventured forward, Schweinsteiger was blocking Argie attacks. Then when he got the ball, he got Germany moving forward with simple passes.
There was no missing in action when attacks came, as Gerrard was so often. There was no Hollywood balls, no glory shots. Roy and all Stevie’s mates in the media want him to carry on captaining England.
There we have another thing England could do to follow the German lead. Dispense with the old bloke in charge. It doesn’t have to be a job you’re given as some sort of carriage clock to celebrate a career and see a manager into his dotage. Give it to someone with a bit of youth and vigour like the Germans did with Klinsmann and then Löw.
But the real things need won’t happen. England players will be hyped up like Jack Wilshere, still be educationally sub-normal, like Wilshere, still move to big clubs and disappear behind imports – Rodwell, Sinclair – still not go to youth tournaments, still not advance from U21 sides and it will all be still ruled by the money that drives the Premier League.
While Germany moved on from the embarrassment of Charleroi in 2000, when Alan Shearer’s 53rd minute header helped condemn them to the bottom spot of the group, that neither team qualified from, England are still hoping a player from that game carries on – Gerrard – while Shearer’s god awful punditry is a national embarrassment carried by the BBC.