If Spain Can Do It…

July 1st, 2008 | by: Daryl |

…why can’t we?

I always thought of Spain as our brothers in underachievement. Lots of quality players, but never in danger of actually winning another trophy. We even won our last trophies at about the same (Spain Euro ‘64, England WC ‘66). Their failure made me feel better about ours.

But Spain went and ruined all that on Sunday.

Now Spain are Euro 2008 champions, they no longer flatter to deceive. Which basically leaves just England as the only nation that is theoretically good enough to win something but can’t get our shit together.

The good news is that Euro 2008 is over. Our absence was a disgrace, but at least it’s all in the past now.

Hopefully we can take the positives from our failure to qualify, as follows:

1. We wouldn’t have done well at Euro 2008 with Steve McClaren anyway
2. McClared out, Capello in. That’s an upgrade
3. Failure to qualify will have cut some England egos down to size, which has to be a good thing.

So here’s to the 2010 World Cup. Let’s hope we’ll be involved.

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http://austria.worldcupblog.org/ j

It’s going to be an exciting qualification run. With only 13 teams from Europe, there is definitely going to be a few disappointments. England has a tough bracket with Croatia and the Ukraine will be far from easy. Can’t wait!
DFV

Disgrace to who. England would have been as good as Greece. Don’t kid yourself Spain and England were and are in different leagues.
João

There was no hype building this time, in fact they were pretty modest about it with the slogan ‘Podemos’ when was the last time England was modest?
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

Have to agree with that João. England have never been modest. But I’m hoping the failure to qualify will give everyone involved (including fans like myself) a much needed dose of humility.
Jess

Maybe having something to prove will be a great motivater for England. After all look at Turkey,Poland and Russia(I’m still smarting from the spanking Russia gave to us Oranje fans!) This could be a really postive thing for you guys. I’ll be cheering with you as long your not playing Holland! Good luck
http://cl.theoffside.com Rob

I think the non-qualification will be good for the likes of Steven Gerrard, who might want it a bit more now that he realises what a boring summer he’s had. Plus the fact that his entire dressing room now has a European Championships medal, might spur him on a bit.
Zico

England is not as talented as the ones of Italy and Spain but they have a pretty good team and i think they can do very well in the WC2010