World Cup 2010 South Africa has now been and gone, a feast of football for a month in the rainbow nation. Here are a few memories of the good and bad for the first World Cup of the decade.

The Good

Paul the Octopus – the world stood still in amazement and in humour, (in particular Germany) held its breath on which mussel would Paul take, that ultimately decided the fate of the nation. Paul’s fame quickly grew as the alleged English born two year old Cephalopod gained a 100% throughout the tournament after fierce competition from Mani the physic Parakeet who predicted a Dutch win in the final. After their semi-final defeat to Spain, German fans called for him to end up on a dinner plate.  He is now arguably the no. 2 fan in Spain behind Andres Ineista.

Ghana – In Africa’s first World Cup expectations were high for the African nations if not to win the World Cup then to put on a display to make the continent feel proud. By the arrival of the knock-out stages Ghana were the only African nation left, after squeezing through a tricky group with Germany. The unity that spread throughout Africa was unimaginable and propelled the Ghanaians’ to the last eight after a deserved victory over the US and were a handball (and a miss penalty) from the semis.

Germany – Vorsprung Durch Technik: The new generation proved to be a big surprise at the World Cup especially in the manner they took Australia, England and Argentina to the sword.  German teams in the past have always been identifiable to how they build their cars: strong, powerful engines, reliable with the occasional touch of class and elegance.  This young team are quick, skilful, strong and direct and have been the best counter attacking team of the World Cup with the likes of Ozil and Mueller.  Watch out for them in 2012 European Championships, they will only get better between now and then.

Spain’s tiki-taka football: Now you could argue that Spain weren’t always at their best in this tournament and only scored more than one goal in a game against Honduras.  But the style, patience and self belief they posses to constantly play the tiki-taka style of football has to be commended. Even when games were very tight entering the last 15 minutes against Portugal, Paraguay and in particular Germany they preserved and persisted with the same formula that has served them exceptionally well in the past.

South Africa ‘dancing out’ against Mexico on the opening day – They have become the first host nation in World Cup history not to qualify to the knockout stages, but their entrance to their opening match against Mexico was simple, breath taking and unique and symbolised the spirit and the coming together of a nation through football.

The Bad

Vuvuzelas – the less said on these ‘swarm of bees’ instrument the better, they were quite simply annoying and have been banned from the Rugby Tri Nations and World Cup in New Zealand next year – such is the impact they have had over the tournament.

Suarez and the Hand of God II – With the quarter final level at 2-2 between Ghana and Uruguay and heading towards penalties, Ghana striker Dominic Adiyah’s goal bound header was handled on the line by Uruguayan centre forward Luis Suarez.  He was subsequently sent off, but with Ghana missing the penalty and then being beaten in the shoot-out 4-2 uproar was felt around the football world. With the Ghanaian Sports Minister Akua Sena Dansua requesting for a rule change for the basketball equivalent of ‘goal-tending’.  What made matters worse was the level of joy and celebration from Suarez after the shootout and his claim to be the new ‘Hand of God’

England, France and Italy choking – three of Europe’s more established nations showed how tactically inept they are with over the hill, out-of-position players and ultra egos to cause player-coach bust-ups.

England: a team who were over-hyped carrying a number of injured players (Ferdinand, Barry, Lennon and Rooney to name a few). Key players playing out of position (Gerrard) and dictator of a manager who was unwilling to change the formation or system to balance the team. Recipe equals winning one of your four games, drawing against Algeria and then getting a football lesson from the young and skilful Germans. And to cap it off Rooney mouthing off to England fans when being booed off the pitch.

Italy: The World Cup winners of 2006 looked a shadow of their former selves, and the problems were all too apparent to see. In previous World Cups I fondly remember the likes of Baggio, Del Piero and Totti all being the central point of an Italian team, giving them the spark, the moment of imagination to unlock a defence. This World Cup they lacked a ‘playmaker’ and that water-tight defence that prided itself on being tighter than the Hoover Dam started to looked wary and show that no anti-ageing cream can avoid their ageing: in-deficiencies particularly from set pieces and quick footed players such as Robert Vittek.

France – C”est sacre bleu, Irish men, women and children alike would have been enjoying this one after the deep injustice that was served to them during last year’s playoff defeat. France are a team glittered with huge stars and egos to match, underperforming and splitting their dummies out when they don’t get what they want.  Domenech decisions need to be looked at closer under a microscope. Why pick Henry? And play Ribery in the ‘hole’ out of position that is not suited to him? But these issues are chicken feed to the deeper problems in the team: first Nicolas Anelka being sent home for verbally abusing Domenech, then Patrice Evra and the fitness coach Robert Duverne having a ‘set-to’, players refusing to train, FFF Managing Director Louis Valentin resigning and finishing bottom of group A.

Goal-line technology – This is very simple, Mr Blatter. Please introduce it ASAP, this was a major embarrassment for FIFA and football when Frank Lampard’s goal that was wasn’t given – fait accompli.

Jubalani – Why is it in every major championship does the issue of the ball arise? Adidas claim it is lighter and faster than ever, with more serve and power.  Quite simple it reminds me of the ones I use to use when I was 10 years old paying £1 from your local shop keeper.  It has more bounce than a beach ball, and made a complete embarrassment of some of the world’s best players (excluding Forlan). For future tournaments Herr Adidas why no just create a simple football with 32 panels and leave it to the skill of the footballer.

Mark Van Bommel (closely followed by the large majority of his team mates) – A player who in this World Cup has been more interested in taking players out with poor tackling rather than using experience and craft to out-perform the opponent.  How on earth he went nearly the whole 90 minutes against Uruguay before getting booked, and was lucky to not be sent off for a horrific tackle on Iniesta’s standing leg in the final.  As for the Dutch tactics on that ill-fated night at Soccer City, it’s all well and good to want to get stuck into your opponents and not give them too much respect and pass you around the park like a game of ‘piggy in-the-middle’ but to truly expect a game-plan to hack and saw your way to winning a World Cup is only going to end in tears once you become restricted to 10-men (or fewer as the case should have been).

Kader Keita – Many people remember Rivaldo’s antics from 2002 against Turkey. This was on an equal par – Keita was elbowed (very slightly) in the chest from Kaka and went down holding his face as if Manny Pacquiao had knocked him out in a title fight. What did FIFA do about it? Nothing!!

Spain, if you’re the “Best Team In The World” according to Joachim Loew, why do you have to be so bloody boring?

Watching Spain’s 1-0 victory against Germany Wednesday, I was bored several times during the match. No, not because of the lack of goals. But because of Spain’s methodically slow tempo. Several times in the first half, they would walk around the pitch and pass the ball between themselves looking for an opportunity to spring the perfect pass. Even when they were winning and they were in Germany’s penalty box, they played keep-away instead of trying to score their second goal.

There’s no doubt that Spain has a team that possesses some of the best players in the world. And the depth that manager Bosque has in his team would make managers of other countries (Capello, anyone?) drool. And, Spain’s tactics Wednesday night were effective by continuing to pass and press Germany, looking for the opening that would give them the slight edge which would be enough to win the game. Still, I realize that Spain and its footballers are not paid to entertain but rather to win, but do they have to be so slow in their build-up?

I’m not expecting Barcelona, I mean Spain, to be as frenetic as a teenage boy in heat (i.e. which is what many Premier League clubs remind me of when they get the ball), but I do expect them to mix up their style of play now and again in the 90 minutes. Yes, there were several flashes of brilliance in this game where David Villa would hit a perfect flick-on, or Andres Iniesta would serve up the perfect pass. But, for crying out loud, give me a few minutes of continuous hang-on-to-the-edge-of-your-seat onslaughts on your opponent’s goal.

I realize that Spain’s tempo is the opposite of what we see in the Premier League. But I’d honestly rather watch a rollercoaster ride of a Premier League match with plenty of highs and imperfect soccer than 90 minutes of boring artistry from Spain. After watching Spain’s semi-final victory, the word that popped into my head to best describe the Spanish team was ‘artisans.’ They excel in their profession and produce a wonderful piece of art. But that art is best enjoyed in a highlight reel rather than suffering through 90 minutes of boredom and flashes of brilliance now and again.

Judging by Spain’s performance today, I don’t hold much hope for this Sunday’s World Cup Final. The one thing that Germany failed to do Wednesday was to get in the faces of Spain and stop them from playing the game they love to control. Germany failed to take control and put Spain on the back foot. And there’s no guarantee that the Dutch crack Spain’s veneer either.

The odd thing about the two finalists in the 2010 World Cup is that neither team has played as well as we had anticipated thus far in the tournament. Both have done incredibly well to make it to the final, but neither team has played the game of their lives that we know they’re capable of. An early goal for both sides on Sunday is one of our few hopes to get both teams to play outside of their shell so we can see end-to-end action. But if that doesn’t happen, we may witness a drab game from both sides as they look for the few chances that fall their way.

At the quarter-final stage of a World Cup tournament, matches are often very close. We’re used to seeing extra time, penalty kicks or low scoring games. But Saturday, Germany put on a clinic in how to play defensively sound soccer as well as how to mount explosive counter-attacks as well as finishing off goals with such precision.

To say Germany’s performance was mindblowing is an understatement. They controlled this game from the start and prevented Argentina from getting many chances. Just as they did against England, Germany played a team game and everyone shone from the goalkeeper all the way through the forwards.

Argentina looked stunned, frustrated and unable to find creative ways to get around the tough German midfielders and defenders. It’s a small comfort for England supporters, but at least Fabio Capello’s side wasn’t the only one to be demolished by Germany. And at least England scored two goals (one being painfully disallowed).

A few days ago it seemed as if the South American teams would control this tournament. But after the exit of Brazil and now Argentina, the advantage is on the side of Europe who have three strong teams who are still remaining in the tournament. The prospect of a Spain against Germany semi-final is tantalizing, but the Spaniards first have to get past a very tough Paraguay side later this afternoon.

Watching the highlights of Germany’s demolition of England in the World Cup are a pretty depressing sight, but LegoFussball.eu have brought some levity to the situation by featuring the highlights as played out by Lego characters.

Each scene uses stop motion photography. Particularly interesting is the replay of Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal. In the Lego Football version, take a look to see whether it crosses the line or not.

In short: Everywhere. Though that won’t do. England’s problems were numerous and solutions are not easy to come by. It’s best to look at the team and the manager as a whole.

Hang on, that sounds awfully familiar, oh well the point still stands. England’s elimination was in hindsight predictable but before the game started only Boris Becker laughed at the notion of a close game in a, presumably, comedic piece to camera. Boris though turned out to be more prescient than most, myself included. Much has been written about England’s demise on this site and many others, I’ve allowed the storm to settle before setting my point out.

In the article after the Algeria game I highlighted Algeria’s system as a major factor in England’s poor performance, the same holds true for the Germany game also. England’s “4-4-2” is probably best written as 4-3-Gerrard-2, that is not to say Gerrard play’s behind the strikers but more that he holds a free role and is encouraged to find space even if it is nowhere near his ‘starting point’ of the left flank. Germany played with 4 in midfield as well but with a very strange shape with Mesut Ozil playing in the same sort of role as Gerrard but with only one out-and-out striker in Klose and Podolski joining in from their left. This left an interesting midfield battle on paper, in reality it was a an annihilation, Ozil got completely free from an semblance of marking by Gareth Barry simply because he moved so much, however on the German side the hugely under-rated Sami Khedira kept Gerrard quiet whilst allowing the back 4, who sat so deep to prevent any space behind them, to comfortably deal with Defoe and an obviously unfit Wayne Rooney. Speaking of back 4’s England’s line was pushed so high up the pitch it turned out to be suicidal. Klose may not be Defoe or Rooney quick but if he was the wrong side of Upson and Terry he was never going to be caught.

The German’s tactics, whilst successful, were not the main reason behind such a crushing defeat. That particular fault is without doubt on the shoulders of England’s defence, shocking and unprofessional errors led to all of Germany’s goals. The first goal was partly due to their high line and either a lack of understanding between defensive partners as 3 players started to play left back or failing to understand that at the altitude in Bloemfontein the ball was going to travel further from Goal-kicks. This cannot be held up as a defence, England have been playing at altitude for weeks, failing to know the flight of the ball and also that you cannot be offside from a Goal-kick allowed Klose to score a simple, but well taken, goal is indefensible. Upson and Terry played like strangers throughout and a shambolic display in the first half was not corrected in the second.

Germany’s final 2 goals were fine displays of counter attacking football. However the question must be raised over the defensive awareness of England’s management and players. From a central free-kick some 30 yards from goal, Frank Lampard was always going to shoot why then was every England player in the box. In Football Management sims I always leave my left and right back on the half-way line in these situations so they can deal with a pacey counter attack. When the ball broke to Schweinstagger he was able to coast forwards and pick out the onrushing Thomas Muller. For Germany’s fourth Gareth Barry was left back with Ozil on his own. Ozil easily outpaced him and the rest was formulaic. This was suicidal football and not what you’d expect from professionals, as a friend put it to me in a text, Why did England change to an 0-8-2 formation at set pieces?

By then the game was dead and Heskey, Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole were put on as place fillers, England’s defence, or lack thereof had killed the game as a contest. All of the above is what did happen, what didn’t happen did is equally important. Commentators and Pundits were outraged by the injustice of Lampard’s ‘Goal’ (what a fine ‘Goal’ it was) but said that it didn’t matter given the display that unfolded in the second half. I contend that it did matter, a hell of a lot.

England didn’t deserve to equalise, they were impotent in attack and a mess in defence. Though when that ball crossed the line Germany were in a similar state, had the goal been given the Germans would have been clinging on to see half-time with the English in ascendancy. The game would’ve changed at 2-2. Germany would have to press further up the pitch rather than just absorbing English pressure and counter attacking. The English could’ve started afresh at half-time, developed a deeper defensive line to prevent Podolski, Klose and Ozil from waltzing in to David James and the German’s final 2 goals would in all likelyhood not have happened. Don’t get me wrong, Germany were the far superior team but with half-time looming Capello could’ve flexed his managerial muscle and fixed England. As it stood they had to attack and they were so inept that the German’s were never truly troubled.

As I said before Hindsight is 20:20 and everyone would’ve been up-in-arms had the team sheet read this as the game started, but what England truly needed against a deep-lying back line was not pace, but a player who can hold the ball up. Yes, I mean…. Peter Crouch, Crouch had the tools necessary to bring Milner, Gerrard and Rooney into the game to pass around the German defence, something Jermain Defoe cannot do.

England’s demise will be pored over time and again. For this I will leave a few bullet points

• Fabio Capello surely cannot continue after this, whilst not entirely his fault he must accept responsibility as the manager for nothing short of a fiasco
• John Terry is not the player he once was, sorry, strike that, he is exactly the player he once was until Jose Mourinho turned him into a world-beater and as he left so did  John Terry the great
• England were truly hampered by Injuries. Beckhams world-class set-pieces could’ve unlocked Algeria’s defence, that was not the Wayne Rooney of before the Bayern Munich champions league game and Rio Ferdinand probably would not have made the mistakes that led to Germany’s goals.
• Robert Green’s mistake cost England the chance to play Ghana, who are not as good as Germany, but given that England performance and the fact Ghana don’t play a simple 4-4-2 they may have beaten England anyway.

And so the England inquest begins once again. After every tournament the same earth is dug over and over again. There can’t be a single argument, idea or notion that hasn’t been given an airing in the last 48 hours. I should know, I’ve been as responsible as anyone for writing them.

The corpse of England is undergoing a thorough autopsy. How did the victim meet its end? Could more have been done to save him? Who exactly did kill England?

All vital questions to be answered, I’m sure. And we’ve all got our opinions, good, bad and whacko. However, we seem to have lost sight of one very important thing. In all the navel gazing we have forgotten that football is supposed to be fun; it’s supposed to be enjoyable.

It’s not war, its not politics, its not quantum physics, its sport. Sometimes, we seem to collectively forget that actually we’re supposed to be having a bloody good time. England getting knocked out of a World Cup isn’t actually that serious; certainly not as serious as the hours of air time devoted to it would suggest.

I’m as fascinated as anybody by the debates but last night I caught myself thinking that what had happened in South Africa actually mattered; that it was important, like it was the war in Afghanistan, an oil spill or an outbreak of malaria.

Some rich blokes lost a football match is all that has happened. We can’t lose sight of that. Indeed, maybe it is the serious, intense attitude we tend to take towards all things England that is behind some of their fear when pulling on an England shirt. Maybe if we could keep a better perspective, see it as sport and not some greater symbol of national decline or inadequacy, then maybe our players could enjoy themselves on and would be more successful?

Or maybe they should just learn better technique as kids, stop being so tactically inflexible and develop a tougher mentality………..ah y’see….there I go again…..off on another rant.

Serenity Now!

Editor’s note: You can now pre-order order Johnny’s excellent new book We Ate All The Pies: How Football Ate Britain Whole from Amazon.co.uk

The similarities between England’s devastating loss to Germany Sunday and the United States’s loss to Ghana on Saturday are remarkable.

Here are ten similarities:

1. Both games featured incredible goalkeeping performances. Neuer for Germany. Kingson for Ghana.
2. In both games, the winning team completely outplayed their opposition.
3. Both teams committed disastrous defensive mistakes.
4. Both Tim Howard and David James could have done better to prevent one of the goals scored by Ghana and Germany respectively.
5. In both the United States and England games, the opposition displayed much better technical and ball-handling skills.
6. Both the United States and England are at a crossroads regarding the future of their youth development systems.
7. Both coaches, Bob Bradley and Fabio Capello, made key tactical mistakes before each game. Bradley should have started Benny Feilhaber and Maurice Edu (and possibly Edson Buddle). Capello should have dropped Barry and Upson in favor of Joe Cole and Ledley King (and should have given Peter Crouch a chance).
8. Both England and the United States had to overcome horrible refereeing decisions. The United States suffered from the lousy calls in two first round games. England suffered a terrible call against Germany when Frank Lampard’s goal was disallowed. The big difference is that the United States recovered from the adversity. England didn’t.
9. Fans will call for both Bob Bradley and Fabio Capello to be fired. The sad fact is that neither decision would improve the situation for England or the United States. The soccer deficiencies of both countries ran far deeper than that.
10. Both countries are nowhere near winning a World Cup trophy in the next four to eight years.

Can you think of any more similarities between both games? If so, post them in the comments section below.

Today was a watermark moment in world soccer. And, with great difficulty but complete honesty, I believe that today marks the final evidence that England is no longer a soccer giant.

Depending on which side of the fence you sit on, this may seem like common sense or complete hypocrisy. But if we ever needed any proof that English football, on the national level, is in a massive decline, today was it. England was completely outplayed by a brilliant German side that deserved all three points.

For England to lose so emphatically hurts. But now that they’re out of this World Cup, it makes you wonder what the next generation of the England national football team will look like. England, without a doubt, at a crossroads in terms of its soccer history. The next few years will shape the future of soccer in England and beyond.

There is some hope. England has talented youngsters such as Joe Hart, Stephen Warnock, Leighton Baines, Joleon Lescott, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Tom Huddlestone, Adam Johnson, Theo Walcott, Ashley Young, Jermaine Beckford, Jack Rodwell, Jose Baxter and others. But what they’re lacking is experience and it’s going to take quite some time to turn this team around and get them into being world beaters again.

After England’s departure from the Premier League, I believe now is a turning point in the history of English football. The evidence is clear. English footballers, as a whole, have a difficult time finding their way into the Premier League teams that play in their own country. The youth and development system is mediocre and there are few opportunities to give English footballers a chance to perform at the highest level.

The time for change is now. It’s time for the Premier League to realize that they’re seriously undermining the national team and the national game while they profit from the greatest players around the world that play week-in week-out in English football stadiums — despite very few of them being actual English.

I don’t want to sound like I’m making excuses but today was a turning point in the history of English soccer. If anyone needed any evidence that the FA, Premier League and FIFA needed to make radical changes, today was it. England was cheated out of a goal. Mexico was cheated when a clearly offside goal was awarded to Argentina.

England needs to improve and make radical changes to change the game in its own country. Looking at the German team, you can see one to two generations of excellent players on their team today. And they have depth. England has very few technically good players, and a bunch of mediocre players that seem to only know how to play club football but can’t play with fellow professionals on a national team level.

Germany is to be congratulated, but the bottom line is that England’s legacy as one of the world’s soccer powers finally came to an end today. If ever we needed proof, today was the day.

England was cheated of a blatant Frank Lampard goal Sunday against Germany when the Chelsea midfielder’s shot hit the crossbar, bounced 2-3 feet inside the goal and back out of the goal. But incredibly, the referee decided that it wasn’t a goal which allowed Germany to go into half-time 2-1 ahead.

This is a blatant example of how FIFA needs to add video technology to aid referees and assistant referees.

For England to be cheated in this manner is an outrage and absolutely horrible. In 2010, FIFA should be using the latest in technology to ensure that decisions are handled correctly. The travesty of all of this is that the referee can only call when he and his assistant referees can see. We, at home, with the aid of TV replays can see much more which puts us an unfair advantage over the referees who are not able to see the replays.

I don’t blame the officials. I blame FIFA for putting referees into a very difficult position. It’s almost impossible for the referees to “win.” The referees will almost always lose, as do we the soccer fans.

At the end of the day, soccer should be fair. Fair decisions rather than teams being penalized by poor decisions by referees who are handicapped by not having access to video technology.

They think it’s all over (Sie denken es ist alles vorbel), well it is now. Not quite, but before, during and after England’s massive game today against Germany, post your opinions and observations in the comments section below as Fabio Capello’s men aim to overturn the Germans to reach the quarter-finals.

According to the UK press, Capello is going to name an unchanged team from the one that defeated Slovenia last Wednesday. It’s a gutsy move from Capello considering that Gareth Barry had a weak game. And there is still not a place for Joe Cole on this side.

Germany, meanwhile, fields an under-strength team that is missing Bastian Schweinsteiger, Cacau and others.

The one thing about Germany versus England matches is that they’re always entertaining. England loves nothing better than to beat Germany, but it doesn’t happen that often. This is absolutely one game you’ll want to sit back and enjoy.

It’s going to be an incredible day of soccer with the later match of Argentina and Mexico, too. Have a wonderful soccer Sunday!