World Cup 2014 ai??i?? Where Are England Headed After The Disastrous Show?

If we look back at the best teams in the World Cup for the year 2002 and 2006, it will be surprising to know that England defenders Sol Campbell and John Terry featured in the list of defenders in the two World XI teams. After seeing Englandai??i??s performance against Uruguay, there is no chance that any of the four defenders of England will have a shot at following the steps of either Terry or Campbell. That shows how Englandai??i??s defending in the World Cups have cost them in South Africa 2010 and now in Brazil. After their encouraging performance against Italy and Uruguayai??i??s shock defeat to Costa Rica, all the media attention was on a man, who had just had a knee surgery four weeks back and was doubtful to be taking part in any way for the World Cup – Luis Suarez. The Uruguay and Liverpool striker once again showed as to why he is the best striker in the Premier League and one of the top in the world and what makes him better than the rest is always being at the right place at the right time.

England never knew before they went in for the clash against Uruguay that their biggest scare before kickoff had become their greatest nightmare.

England knew once they landed in Sao Paulo that nothing less than a win would be required for them against Uruguay, if they were to progress to the last 16. After their performance against Italy, Wayne Rooney was deeply criticized that he had no impact playing on the left flank and he should be playing in his more comfortable position, through the centre, behind the striker. England Manager Roy Hodgson, at every press conference, kept saying that the loss to Italy had not affected any of the players and they were ready to come out of the blocks and attack the Uruguay back four just like they had done from the start against the Italians. England could not afford to have any margin for error defensively from their side; otherwise Suarez and Cavani would certainly grab the slightest of opportunity to test Joe Hart in goal. Word was out that Rooney would start in his preferred position in the centre, behind the striker and Raheem Sterling moved to the flanks. This would give Wayne Rooney more space to work with in the centre and England a more attacking presence. England were ready to take on an Uruguay side that had just suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Costa Rica. Uruguay were planning to make a couple of changes to their sideAi?? before taking the pitch at Sao Paulo and Luis Suarez was fit to start this game.

Clash Of The Desperados

Suarez made sure that England would never have thought after a knee surgery that he would probably play the same way as he did all season for Liverpool. Rooney had a much improved game after Italy; he had a free kick go just wide and a header, which hit the bar where many people thought he should have scored after getting into that position. Those were the two best chances that England had all half and should have gone at least one goal up for their efforts as they needed that first goal to go in more confident of the two sides at the half time break.

Uruguay on the other hand started slowly off the blocks but found their rhythm once the half progressed and had a Rodriquez-shot go inches above Hartai??i??s goal following a poor clearance from Phil Jagielka. This made Uruguay start seeing more of the ball and in the 35^th minute, when Rodriguez took advantage of some poor defending in the centre and played the ball on the left to Cavani, who in return played a delightful cross ball over Jagielkaai??i??s head to make Suarez head towards Hartai??i??s right, into the back of the net. Uruguay had the lead and England had their midfielders to blame, who were lazy in falling back to position. England went in at half time a goal down in a must win game and they had to do something they hadnai??i??t done in their last six World Cup games- score in the second half.

England started the second half shaky and almost let Uruguay take the game out of their reach when within two minutes Suarez and Cavani having only Joe Hart to beat at goal shot wide. Hart did enough on both the occasions to make him look big enough in front of goal. England had survived and with just twenty minutes remaining, they had both their substitutes Barkley and Lallana on the field in search of an equalizer. In the 75^th minute, England got their reward when Sturridge and Johnson combined on the right flank and the ball found the centre for Rooney to tap it in with his left leg at the back post. Rooney had his first world cup goal after 759 minutes of playing time and his tenth attempt in the finals. England were back level with fifteen minutes to play and kept on putting the pressure on the South Americans and looked the more likely of the two to grab a winner towards the end.

But when a failed Gerrardai??i??s header five minutes from time found its way towards Luis Suarez, who got into a brilliant position in front of goal, everyone knew there was going to be one outcome.

Suarezai??i??s thunderous shot past Joe Hart gave Uruguay the lead and almost assured their three points, which they needed to stay in the competition. England on the hand were behind and needed to recover once again with a few minutes remaining to grab an equalizer or they would be surely heading back home. They really didnai??i??t seem to recover and Uruguay got three points they required, Suarez was the hero with both the goals and England were more or less out of the World Cup.

Roy Hodgson got his tactics wrong. He should have played with a 4-3-3 because playing Gerrard and Henderson in the centre wasnai??i??t good enough as they needed that third person in there, who could have been the playmaker. Defensively, they were weak and did not have enough depth in the squad to get the better out of their oppositions. Having two attacking full backs didnai??i??t help as they werenai??i??t natural defenders and were more attacking in their approach rendering the two centre backs exposed.

Where does it leave England?

What does this mean for the English team, who has degraded their performance in the last two World Cups? England was always considered to be a good team on paper, which always gave a spirited and fighting performance. Be it the 2002 performance against Argentina or the quarterfinal of 2006 against Portugal – where they were down to ten men. England were always up to the challenge and had enough character to play good attractive football.

England needs to recover from this shock in Brazil and look at the qualifiers for Euro 2016 as their biggest testing point. They should make sure their younger players get more game-time and play more matches against teams in different conditions. They should stick to this squad and look to rebuild for the qualifications, creating a good enough team to play these tournaments than depending on one or two individuals. Englandai??i??s World Cup exit in the group stages hasnai??i??t happened since 1958 and is a great cause of concern.

Former England defender Jamie Carragher, in his autobiography, had frankly said that losing for England never felt as bad as losing for Liverpool. England need to get that mentality of club football out of their minds before playing any competitive international football as they know their strength lies in the fact that all their players play in the ‘best league in the world‘ and they should take that as an advantage rather than a privilege. The loss against Uruguay and Costa Ricaai??i??s win over Italy means that England is out even before playing their last group game, which shows that they had their worse World Cup run in the last five decades and need to be more prepared mentally and physically than what they were in Brazil, for future competitions.

England should test their bench strength in the last game against the Costa Rica, which will certainly not be easy as the central Americans have beaten two top ten ranked teams at the moment. England should play flawless football and look at showing everyone in Brazil what they could have done. If they give a stellar performance and manage to get 3 points, they end the campaign on a positive note and it will be a good learning experience for the youngsters as they would know what it feels to play at such a stage. Young players like Bradley, Shaw, Lambert and Lallana should start and it will be interesting to see how they cope with the pressure as this experience will be valuable for the future.

England need their players to step up and find problems on the field – they naturally do not have a leader in their squad, who is capable enough to find out exactly what the problem during the game is (which they should have during their first game realizing that they needed to change something to have a more attacking game).

The positive thing from England is that the development of young players is now starting at a very young age. There are better academies in the UK, better coaching and enough playing time with professionals to get that match practice which is required. The future is good, they should look at going to Euro 2016 with the same squad and changing it a little because that would be the biggest testing point before qualification for Russia 2018 would start.

Written by guest author Manish Padhi

Tags: England England vs Uruguay World Cup 2014

World Cup 2014 ai??i?? Where Are England Headed After The Disastrous Show?

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