There is something inherently masochistic about being English. Every time one of the big tournaments come along we start to believe this will be the year, this time it will be different, it will all come together and we’ll mow down everyone in front of us like a coked up Rambo in a Vietnamese POW camp.
Some times there are even reasons to feel this optimistic. There are no shortages of performances that show us we have reason to believe. The 11 heroes who held Italy 0-0 in Rome before the ’98 World cup and of course that night in Munich in 2001 on the way to Japan and Korea four years later.
On those evenings we had glimpses of what England is capable of, we had reasons to believe.
This time was no different; I’ve spent the last two years watching a good team make qualifying look as straightforward as any England team I’ve ever seen. After the disaster of Erikson and failing to make Euro 98, Capello took over and with essentially the same players made it look easy.
We had reason to think that England could go deep into the tournament. No real stand out players beyond Rooney, some off the field issues, no set keeper and a couple of injuries all gave pause. Despite all that they looked like a team that had shown us they knew how to play together and make the sum greater than the parts.
Then there is what we’ve seen over the last month, two warm up games against Mexico and Japan followed by the first two group games.
I don’t know if it’s burn out at the end of a long season, on the surface a reasonable excuse as some players are approaching 50 games in the last year.
Interestingly it does seem that the European teams have generally underperformed, especially compared to the South American sides. But a majority of the top South American players all ply their trade in Europe and are coming off the same 45+ game seasons, yet don’t seem to be affected in the same way.
You’d have thought at after 40 years of World Cups and European Championships I’d be used to this feeling of underachievement and disappointment.
One World Cup semi-final and one Euro Championship semi-final (both lost to the Germans on penalties BTW) is little show for a life of dedication to the England cause. It’s not as easy; deep down a little optimistic part of me truly believes that England can do it, that it’s going to be different this year.
I think it’s the lot of the England supporter. We get built up just to be knocked down by the cold, hard fist of reality smacking us in the face.