Kiev's Olympic Stadium: the scene of England's crime |
It was a massacre in all but the score line
and even the most ardent of England fans couldn't deny the better team won.
Nevertheless, as the penalty shoot out began
it didn’t prevent a wave of optimism when Riccardo Montolivo missed his
penalty for Italy, giving England the advantage that they soon squandered after
tame efforts from Ashley Young and the normally reliable Ashley Cole.
The English section of the stadium was
something akin to a morgue after the defeat. Many of which were younger fans,
the older ones now almost getting used to such failures. The younger ones just
staring into the abyss like so many of the more senior supporters have done in Turin,
Wembley, Shizouka and Gelsenkirchen.
As for the game itself, oh how we missed
Jack Wilshere. Our inability to keep the ball has been well documented and the
silky passing of the young Arsenal midfielder would have been essential if we'd had any hopes
of having a major impact on this tournament.
Even the evergreen Paul Scholes would have
been a more welcome addition to the pitch than the underwhelming introduction of
Jordan Henderson.
As majestic as Italy’s Andrea Pirlo was,
this tweet from Michael Owen shortly after England’s exit summed up the absence
of Scholes: ‘Pirlo was awesome but we have a player of a similar age and
equally as good. Unfortunately, he wasn’t there. #Scholes.’
Some may have viewed him coming out of
retirement as regressive step but do you think the Italians would readily
discard Pirlo, or the Spanish Xavi, in such a hurry? I think not.
Anyway, back to the England fans, who
behaved impeccably throughout Sunday night’s game, thoughts were already
turning towards Brazil. The endless optimism of an England fan is both
reprehensible and admirable in equal measure.
We just hope we have more ball
retainers than ball hoofers next time out. Joe Hart’s endless long balls
towards Andy Carroll became a familiar theme during the heartbreaking defeat to
Italy.
But where there are young midfield starlets
like Wilshere and Manchester United’s Tom Cleverley there is hope. My goodness
we need it. We are going home, we are going we going home (but we’ll be back).
See you in Brazil in 2014, providing we qualify of course.