Steven Gerrard Confesses He Thought of Quitting the England National Team Following a Dismal World Cup
Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard has confessed that he considered retiring from the England national team in light of the Three Lions’ embarrassing exit from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
He told the media that in the wake of England being knocked out of the tournament, the whole idea of international football seemed like a hassle that just didn’t seem worth it anymore.
He quoted in a press conference, "After what happened, calling it a day does cross your mind at times." He continued by saying that it would not be a surprise if other players were thinking along the same lines as him.
He was sure that after the tournament, other players on the plane heading back home were hurt too and were extremely demoralized. A lot of high hopes were shattered that day when they lost, as most of them realized then and there that they were not as good as they had thought themselves to be.
Still, the unwavering hope that things will come around and they should be patient and work even harder remains etched in their minds.
Gerrard told the media that he loves to play for England and has been doing so for almost ten years now. He has been training for it and would have wanted nothing more than to achieve something higher for England.
However, looking back at the loss against Germany with a humiliating score of 4-1, some ambitions just seem too far out of reach.
Right now, he wants to at least see his side make it to the Euro 2012 semifinals, and this is something that he would take pride in telling his children. He confessed that just for that feeling, everything seems worth it and this gives him strength to go on.
Gerrard believes that bad luck had a lot to do with the Three Lions’ outcome in the World Cup, and whether his fans agree with him or not seems insignificant at this point.
Gerrard says that the most frustrating factor out of all of this is not getting knocked out, but the manner in which they got knocked out.
"Up to their third goal I was having the time of my life, captaining my country and loving it, really enjoying the training day-in and day-out, enjoying the games, the build-up and the expectation.
"Then for the game to just change and be done on two counter-attacks and lose 4-1 to your arch-rivals was difficult to take. That's what I can't get out of my head.
"I think it is a sign of our naivety. We need to sit down and go over that and think about it. We were 2-1 down but went gung-ho to try to chase the game and turn it round.
"That was a big mistake. We tried to turn it round instead of being patient when there was a lot of time left to get the equaliser.
"It was down to the players, not our instructions. The players have got to take responsibility. We went out there; we were in control of the situation. Even at 2-1 down I had confidence we could win the game 3-2 because we were bossing the game and at a good stage and had chances to score,” he said.
The English player is also persistent about the fact that it was not only coach Fabio Capello’s tactics that were to blame for their poor showing at the World Cup. He said the players need to share the blame equally and change a lot of things both technically and mentally in order to emerge a stronger side.
Gerrard says that the Spanish team is a benchmark for other teams to inspire to, and he is not sure if it’s their training, their players or just their confidence, but they have what everyone wants.
"There blatantly is a difference between the likes of Spain and us because they've gone and won the World Cup. They've proved they are a lot better than us as a team. They've proved that they're capable of handling that situation better than us,” he said.
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