What would be a good World Cup for England?
Written by James Beckett Friday, 21 May 2010 18:19
With just three weeks to go before the attention of the world turns to South Africa, and the greatest football show on the planet, excitement amongst England fans is beginning to pick up. But just how far can England go this summer, and more importantly can we really win the World Cup?
The short answer is unfortunately no, England can't win the World Cup. While we have a great manager, several good international players, and probably the most passionate fans, we have one major drawback, and that is that we only have one world class player.
If you look at Spain, who in my opinion will run away with the tournament, they have a handful of truly world class players, and at the big tournaments this is what makes the difference between success and failure. The Spanish have proven they have what it takes to deal with the pressure, after emerging from Euro 2008 victorious, and in my opinion something will have gone wrong if they don't emerge from South Africa victorious as well.
So what would be a successful tournament for England? Well I fully expect them to come out of group C with nine points, and from then on, it is a guessing game. Assuming Germany win their group, a last 16 game against Serbia or Ghana shouldn't cause too many problems, and then England would be in the quarter final once again.
This is when things get tough, just by running through a wall chart, France and Argentina look like possible opponents, but it will defiantly be a team from groups A or B. But France would be the more logical opponents, and personally I feel that England could get past the French, and make it to our first semi final since 1990.
I think this would be a great achievement for Capello, and it would show signs of progress for the future. Once you reach the semis anything can happen and it would really be a lottery to see if England can go any further. But with Brazil, Holland, Italy and Portugal all possible opponents, you have to feel that a spot in the final might just be beyond the three lions.
So while I don't think England will win the World Cup, I think a semi final spot is a realistic target, after a kind draw. England shouldn't fear anybody up to the semi final stage, and from then on who knows, once you reach the semis, you are just two good performances away from creating history, so maybe, just maybe England could win the World Cup?
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Dave
said:
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... I'm quite heartened by the fact alot of people are saying that the semi-finals will be the best we can hope for. In previous tournaments there has been a sense of blind over confidence. I think we deserve a little bit of luck this time and my guess is we will reach the final. |
Kris Mole
said:
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... I've also got a strong feeling that we'll make it to the last game of the tournament. If we can build up momentum early on then there's no reason why we can't just keep growing throughout the tournament. I think back to Euro 96 for how it can be, and even then we should've got past the Germans in the semi and gone on to win it, but for a bit of bad luck. |
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