What a difference four days make. All last week the talk about England was of missing players, fitness gambles and "failure" recalls. Today, just those few days later, two wins and six points have been gained by England against their two main rivals in the chase for the assumed remaining qualification place. Croatia is widely seen as already qualified, not least by its infamous manager, Slavin Bilic - yes, he of the "Blancgate" scandal, where his feigned facial injury caused Laurent Blanc to miss the final and the winners' medal he deserved - but we digress. Deservedly, Scotland have taken the plaudits and most of the media attention following their one nil victory over France in Paris. This has, for once, driven the normally over reactive english media into giving, for them at least, relatively sober assessments of the England team's achievements over the last few days. So far nobody has taken qualification for granted and credit was given, where due, without embellishment and setting of unrealistic targets.
You have to fear for Scotland though. If ever there was a media build up resembling the ludicrous claims of Ally's Army of 1978, then we are seeing the beginnings of them. "Greatest result of all time" or a qualified "greatest result of the modern era" are just some of the platitudes. They've even wheeled out a list of the greatest Scottish results of all time. Confusingly, Scotland's 3-2 1967 Wembley victory over the then English World Champions seems to have the nod as the greatest of all, despite the fact it was a friendly and that for the English players it was their last match of a season that had lasted nearly a year because of their Summer '66 exertions! Tongue in cheek of course. We'd really love the Scots to make it finally into a European Finals tournament. Well who wouldn't prefer meeting Scotland to meeting one of France or Italy? For the record though, we don't think Scotland will make it, despite their commendable efforts.
The many merits that accompanied England's performance included individuals such as Owen, Heskey, Barry, Richards and, at least in part, Wright-Phillips. It also came in the shape and balance of the team which has been so conspicuous in its absence in the McClaren era. Good grief, we even passed the ball around a bit in patches! But there was one other ingredient: good fortune. Had the referee not ruled out, incorrectly, Zyranov's 18th minute effort, the result may well have been very different. Just 12 minutes later, Owen cruelly punished Russia's lack of scoring in their only truly dominant period of the match. Whilst we didn't see the Scotland match, it doesn't take too much working out that, with just 28% of the possession, Scotland would have had their work cut out defending with some measure of luck thrown in.
With the level of professionalism now at international level, and with the demands placed by clubs that the internationals have to operate within, it is not surprising that fortune does play a part in football. The point is to grab that good fortune when it comes your way. Last night an in form Holland required a 90th minute Van Nistelrooy goal to secure the points against unfancied Albania. All great teams get a "lucky " label attached at some point in their greatness. But as Jack Nicklaus' old adage goes, "it's amazing, the more I practice, the luckier I get".
Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events
- Pascal Chimbonda, the Spurs' defender, has been arrested on fraud charges related to his transfer to Wigan from Bastia in 2005. The charges are believed to be part of another investigation concerning money laundering. Which kind of begs the question: what's happening about Lord Stevens' bungs enquiry? Gone disturbingly quiet - again. Anybody?
- Good grief! Shevchenko is alive and well - and scoring - for Ukraine. Shame for the Scots that it was in a loss against their rivals Italy.
- David James, interviewed in this September's 442 Magazine, said that it was true that he refused to do interviews with Sky Sports from October through December, because December was the earliest that they could fix his satellite system. Good on you David! Though wish I had some means of retribution against those effing c***s. They made me wait in all 3 days of an August bank holiday, only finally to turn up and refusing to do anything because a High Installation Team (HIT) was needed. It wasn't at all, and it was another two months before I had my Sky installed. Monopolies eh.
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