FIFA World Cup 2010: Why Did England Fail To Perform At The World Cup?
England had by far one of the most experienced squads going into the World Cup. It was a team compromised of Champions League and Premier League winners. However England were sent packing, by a rather younger and far less experienced German side. The question that comes to mind is what went wrong? Why were there players incapable to living up to their potential?
The first reason that comes to mind is, the Premier League itself. The ever decreasing number of home grown players in the Premier League is one of the main factors that has led to the shortage of quality English players around. The F.A needs to acknowledge this fact and maybe set a quota of home grown or English players that each club team, in the premier league should have.
The second factor it seems is the lack of technique and skill amongst the English players themselves. Compared to the other top teams in the tournament, the English seemed incapable of passing the ball or retaining possession of it, once it was lost to the opposition. They were useless in going forward with no one showing any creativity or imagination. They were only worse when defending, where they were slow, all over the place and had the reaction time of a eighty year old.
Lastly and most importantly it was all down to the pressure. The main culprit for all this unwanted pressure was the media. They created un-reasonable expectations for the players and hyped aspects that didn’t even need attention. The players felt like movie stars instead of athletes which is why they failed to perform on the big stage. If the team performs, they players are highly hailed by the press, but if it fails to meet expectations, all h**l breaks loose on them. It is perhaps this pressure that when coupled with the pressure of the millions of fans that lead to the eventual crumbling of the team.
Apart from the fact that there should be a quota of home grown players nothing else should really matter. These are professional athletes who are paid for what they do. They are expected to possess the technical capabilities and skill levels of 'the best in the world'. Perhaps if they don’t then they don’t deserve their spot in the team and that is something the managers of the squads should address. Also, pressure is something that goes hand in hand with playing sports at such a high level. If someone says that the pressure is too much for them to handle, then they don’t deserve to be there. After all you are paid millions of pounds to play and are put through the best training that is possible. The excuse that there was far too much pressure on the players is just a convenient way of underperforming players to get away with the fact that, they just aren’t performing. Which is something,the English football authority should follow up on.
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