Come on, you didn't think...?

Sorry, just a moment...

FUCKFUCKFUCKSHITSHITBASTARDBOLLOCKSCUNTFUCKFUCKCUNTWANKERSHITESHITESHITEBOLLOCKSFUCKFUCKFUCK!!!
FUCK!

That's better.

People should be able to make a fortune out of England at the bookies (especially if you backed the draw, ahem!), they have to be the most predictable team in World football. If only they didn't get carried away with this optimism lark. Watching England in the World Cup is like re-reading your favourite book over and over again in the hope that the ending will change, a venture just doomed to failure every time. Yes, here we go again, troubles with unpredictable best player, will he play, won't he play? Yes yes, play crap win, play crap win, play crap win, play crap win. Ah, big team, this will be the end, we have no chance playing like this. Nooo, disaster, adversity, it's all going wrong. But wait...look, they're playing well...they're going for it...our heroes, they can do this! COME ON ENGLAND!!...

Oh dear.

Seriously though, it is absolutely typical England. As soon as they begin to look like a decent side, it's goodbye. What made this latest heroic failure particularly hard to swallow was the fact that it was all so easily avoidable. I said in a previous post that what England needed was to be free of Sven's tactical noose, and so it proved when change was forced upon them. Chance relieved England of their greatest hindrance, Beckham, and the pace and width of Lennon that replaced him almost won the game. What wasn't needed of course was being reduced to ten men and losing their best player, but even after Rooney's exit, England, with no plan in place whatsoever, took the game to Portugal and deserved to win. The truth is that the team that would have definitely won the game was on the field for less than ten minutes. England were given every clue to their best 11 during the warm up games, and in their poor performances in the early stages of this tournament, and yet they chose to ignore them all.

More frustrating still was the fact that Portugal were just asking to be beaten, and they gave surely one of the worst performances ever to earn a semi-final place in a World Cup. For a team which already had the bare minimum in attack, to reduce that number still further after the opposition had gone down to ten men has to go down as one of the most bizarre decisions ever. So much for another supposed tactical genius. 'Big Phil' Scolari got this one horribly wrong, as his battalion of midfielders ran around armed with the necessary weaponry, but with no target in sight. It should have lost Portugal the game, but the luck was with them. Portugal also feature in their team the World Cup's most odious individual in the utterly repellent form of Cristiano Ronaldo. Surely no one outside Portugal will be happy to see such a horrible, arrogant, overrated, cheating cry-baby lift the World Cup. Which is just as well, because he won't, and we do at least have the pleasure of his failure, and subsequent blubbing to look forward to.

Not that Ronaldo was actually responsible for the turning point of the match, whatever we may think of him. It was difficult to tell whether or not the referee did send off Wayne Rooney for the red-card offence he actually committed, or for the much less serious push that followed, but this really doesn't matter. All that is important in these circumstances is that justice is done, and there can be no doubt that the dismissal was justified. Rooney however, should not be made a scapegoat here either, in fact if any blame is to be ditributed, it should be pointed firmly in the direction of the England manager, and coaching staff. Even Rooney's foolishness can be linked to Eriksson's incompetence, after all the vicious stamp into Carvalho's groin was surely the act of a frustrated man, completely fed up with running himself into the ground with not a team mate in sight. Rooney deserved to go, but his mistake was understandable and forgivable. Eriksson's were not.

Of course, despite the frustration that all England fans feel at the team causing their own downfall once again, it should be remembered that at no stage of this tournament have England looked like World Champions. The Premiership is presented to us with such razzmatazz that it's easy to convince ourselves that the play seen there is better than it is. If commentators regularly tell us that John Terry and Rio Ferdinand are among the best defenders in the world, we believe it, and yet this tournament tells us something very different. Defensively England looked way behind France and Italy. In midfield they have nothing to compare with Argentina, despite the supposedly world class Lampard and Gerrard. Ironically, England's one individual display worthy of the world stage came from the one man that we are consistently told is rubbish. Yesterday, Owen Hargreaves gave one of the finest performances I have ever seen in an England shirt. The man was all over the pitch, despite the fact that he was meant to be playing midfield anchorman, usually a rather static position. Hargreaves maintained his covering position when Portugal had the ball, and yet got forward to support Rooney far more often than the two attacking midfielders infront of him, whose job it was to do so. I would like to hear the explanation of the tired-looking Lampard and Gerrard for this lack of energy shown in a World Cup quarter final. Well boys, was it the heat again? Hopefully Hargreaves will retain a place in the team, and in his correct position instead of being used as some kind of handyman utility player. I don't think you will see Bayern Munich moving him around too much after all.

Now of course, we have to suffer many people showing a disinterest in the World Cup. Only this morning, five live brought their World Cup breakfast show to an end, and presenter Nicky Campbell announced his return home. The suggestion that only England matter is one of the worst side effects of the World Cup. What are these people on? Get over your disappointment and park yourself infront of the next game!

After all, it's just getting interesting.