by LoveUniHateExams 3 Replies latest social current
So, England lost yesterday in the world cup semi-final to Croatia, the deserved winners.
I'm a bit gutted we didn't reach the final but I think the England team can feel proud of how well they've done. I know I certainly feel a certain amount of pride in the team.
I guess they just ran out of steam in extra time.
But, overall, England did well this campaign.
Of course, improvements need to be made if England are to reach the finals of serious competitions.
Bring on the euros!
We won a penalty shootout, so maybe we've banished that demon and can have some self-belief in future tournaments.
But overall it wasn't really a great performance was it? We had a couple of decent games but the group and position we ended up in was really a fantastic opportunity and will be unlikely to come along again for a long, long time (if ever).
We just weren't good enough, relied too much on set pieces and never felt like we dominated a game or posed a serious threat.
I was thinking about the "football's coming home" song the other day - the "30 years ago" should really now be "50 years ago". The last England world cup win was the year before I was born and it might be that I never get to see it happen within my lifetime.
I still hope and cheer when they play though. Maybe next time ...
@Simon - yeah good points.
This was an excellent opportunity for England to reach the final and even win it.
England obviously need to make improvements to be considered serious contenders.
I suppose my point was that the team did pretty well to reach the semis and hang with Croatia for 90 mins, especially when you consider how crap England were in Euro 2016 and previous world cups.
We've got a team made up of fairly young players (Harry Kane is still only 24), so the team should work hard to improve.
It was good progress but they were outplayed in the second half by the better team. Croatia dominated midfield by pinning back our wingbacks. England began to make really basic defensive errors and in the final third they lacked the quality to create goals.
It's a young team who will keep on improving, as will the manager. There are also some excellent youths at St George's Park. The future is bright.
So many formerly great teams were terrible.
