Peter Swallow (@ccfooty) takes a look at England’s defeat to Uruguay on Thursday night that all-but sees them eliminated from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
As the full time whistle blew in São Paulo, two of Liverpool’s most inspirational players embraced each other. One as the euphoric victor, the other the disconsolate loser, yet the story of how these two came to be is not so simple.
That winner was one Luis Suarez, the stubborn thorn in England’s side, while the loser was England captain Steven Gerrard, the man whose flicked header allowed Suarez to deliver the fatal blow to England’s World Cup hopes. The lights are on, but on barely.
For many, this signifies the end of an era. Golden or otherwise, that generation of England players, so fabled yet with no tangible success, has dissipated along with England’s World Cup hopes.
A 2-1 defeat at the hands of Uruguay leaves England in a position few can recover from. Divine intervention appears the only salvation and even that may not be enough.
The reality that elimination sits round the corner is to be a cruel end to a fine international career. Steven Gerrard will forever be remembered as one of the finest midfielders to hail from these shores. Yet this summer, he has been the symbol of the old England, the one that focus’ starry eyed on it’s past, melancholy about what could have been, the epitome of the golden generation.
Against Italy, England’s captain struggled to muster any sort of lasting impact. The same cannot be said against Uruguay, it’s just a shame that his resounding involvement came at the detriment of his country.
Beaten on the halfway line by Nicolás Lodeiro for Uruguay’s superb opening goal, he would later flick on Fernando Muslera’s goal kick to present Luis Suarez with an opportunity he was never going to pass up.
Gerrarrd remains a figure for England fans to grasp onto as a symbol of what could have been. Let’s be clear, he is certainly no scapegoat, but England’s captain lacked the drive and guile that he used to provide in such plentiful amounts. Much like Spain’s Iker Casillas and Xabi Alonso, it’s time to thank him for his invaluable service and move on, no matter how painful a process it may be.
Further problems could be seen in defence; it is here that Roy Hodgson took a chance that he unfortunately paid dearly for. Leighton Baines’ quality is without question in Premier League circles, but when it came to the enormous pressure of representing England, he appeared confused and out of his depth.
Both Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka meanwhile remain decent players individually, but a solid centre-back partnership so many had prayed
for, didn’t materialise. Evidence of such fact comes as England were unravelled by that most English of dark arts, a long hopeful punt up the pitch.
Unfortunately when push came to shove, England failed to demonstrate any of the attacking pomp that caused Italy such trouble, the young lions who played with such scant disregard of the pressures of World Cup football against Italy seemed frozen this time around.
Why though, is it so painful to be on the brink of elimination? After all expectations were suitably low, who among us honestly expected 2014 to be the year in which we added a second star to the crest.
Perhaps it’s due to the fact that no matter how dismal England’s respective performances were, we somehow managed to escape the rigours of the group stages.
Most likely however, the frustration comes with the realisation that while England are far from world-class, nor are Uruguay. Had England executed the basics, that was a very winnable match, and a very beatable team,
Indeed it is true that nearly every side has its blunders, just look at Spain this summer. Yet such debacles usually come after, or precede success of some form.
France’s humiliation at the World Cup in 2002 came as they were reining World and European champions, and was followed by a World cup final appearance in 2006.
Italy’s disastrous World Cup campaign of 2010 came 4 years after being crowned World Champions in Germany, while 2 years after, the Azzurri managed to reach the final of Euro 2012, while it seems somewhat trivial to go into detail regarding Spain’s successes up to this point.
Yet the underlying feeling once again is that England have failed to learn from their mistakes. Where our contemporaries find areas of improvement and subsequently fix them, England have once again failed to address the glaring omissions that stop us from progressing on the international stage.
In that regard, this summer now represents the perfect opportunity to move on, to shed the painful lasting remnants of the perceived golden generation that do nothing but fill us with false hope.
It is time to recognise England’s position within the world spectrum with a sense of honest realism. If we once again failed to do so, expect that feeling of bitter disappointment to rear it’s ugly head once again.