england have played over 180 minutes over 2 games in this year’s world cup. less than 15 minutes of that have been good quality soccer, the other 165 minutes give or take have been some of the most flat, unenthusiastic, boring, wasted, trash heap soccer i have seen in a long time. i have actually thought to myself way too many times, that i’d actually rather turn this off or get out of the house. then i remember that i’m in northern virginia, and if i leave that means one word, traffic.
i grew up a basketball player through and through. i played basketball pretty much all the time except in the middle of the summer in 100+ temps. i played many other sports, but i always labeled myself a ‘baseball playing basketball player’ or whatever other sport i was playing at the time, including soccer. i have always loved soccer but i never made room for it because i was always balling and didn’t have any friends who were kicking around or getting soccer pick-up games together. over the last 2 or so years, i have become a huge fan of the beautiful game.
soccer is a game of emotion and of passion and of togetherness and of excitement. i watch quite a bit of the english premier league on fox soccer channel and la liga and serie a on gol tv and in those leagues emotion and passion and excitement are found in plenty. you will not find these things on the pitch in this world cup as of yet. i have watched all but 3 or so matches and i have found them to be boring, uninspired snooze-fests.
the most dissappointing team to me has been three lions from england. absolutely pitiful. i’ve been eagerly anticipating this world cup for some time now and a majority of that anticipation has been over the england side. their squad is absolutely stocked with world class talent. steven gerrard, frank lampard, john terry, joe cole, michael owen, david beckham (he’s hardly world class aside from his free kicks and crosses, but he’s more than servicable) rio ferdinand, ashley cole, and paul robinson. to say nothing of their large crop of gifted youngsters michael carrick, jermaine jenas, aaron lennon, the unproven and untested yet highly rated theo walcott (who was scooped up by my gunners this january!) and stewart downing, although i have been unimpressed with him.
all of these names without mentioning their best player who is only 20 years old and has been out for 6+ weeks with a broken metatarsal in his right foot, wayne rooney. england is absolutely stacked! they are passionate, energetic, and dynamic players all of them. for their respective club teams, they’re all top performers. i don’t know what their deal is as a national team. not many other countries have as much passion as the english, after all the game was invented in england, but the team is playing absolutely uninspired two games in.
how do you go from being an assassin in your club team to being barely able to put the ball on net? how do you captain your club team to an absolutely EPIC champions league final win, to getting lost at times and being nowhere to be found? how do you not get up for the world cup and not come out absolutely on fire? how do you not kick your teamates in the butt and make them pick up their game? you can lead without wearing the captain’s armband. its not written in stone that the only leader on the pitch is the one with the band around his left arm.
can you hear me terry, gerrard, lampard??!!!!
pick it up!!!
start blasting from all over the place with this new ball that all the goalies hate!
pepper the keeper early and often! let ‘em loose and let owen and crouchie clean up the mess!!!!!!
only one team has come out with purpose and fire and tenacity thus far and that was spain, and their talisman/captain was sitting on the bench!
i know its early yet, and i anticipate the knockout rounds to be crackers, but i truly hope tomorrow and the weekend’s matches are worth watching. i feel a bit like homer simpson in that i’m wearing a dent into the couch with all the matches i’ve been watching. hopefully i’ll start feeling like it was worth it soon. as of now i don’t.
regardless, england are officially through to the next round. i’m looking forward to seeing more of this from stevie g. and the rest of the english lads in the coming weeks.
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