England World Cup Performance Should Be Compared to That of France, Not Germany

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: July 20, 2014

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World Cup winning Germany captain, Phillip Lahm, announced his retirement from international football on Friday, leaving behind a generation of German players who are more than capable of extending the legacy of the team he led in Brazil. As speculation surrounding his successor builds and articles lauding Germany’s fortunes over England’s pile up in the media, it becomes more and more apparent that the wrong comparison is being made.

If Steven Gerrard were to hang up his England armband tomorrow, he would be relinquishing control over a group of players that—at the very most—has potential. Indeed, this potential might be greater should Gerrard come good on such a decision, since the nation’s realism is perennially blurred by an insistence on holding onto what was labelled but never actually was a “Golden Generation.”

In reality, as suggested in some quarters, including by BBC Sport, England should to copy Germany’s path to success, but it will take many more significant alterations than a change of captaincy to mend the tears in the fabric of English football. By and large, though, it would be wise to stop measuring England’s position in relation to that of the world champions. Frankly, England are nowhere near.

More intelligently selected neighbours with which to contrast the English performance would be the French. This is because both teams arrived in Brazil with an alleged lack of expectation and a handful of young players touted to light up the competition.

 

Contrasting Expectations



The French genuinely believed that this World Cup would be something of a transitional tournament, as Didier Deschamps admitted at the end of last season. Speaking to RMC in April (h/t Goal.com), Deschamps said that “there are six or seven teams out there that head into the competition to win it, but France are not among those t...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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