Like most football fans across the globe, I have diligently watched this summer's European Championships and, like many, have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of football on display. When the announcement was made that Poland and Ukraine were to share the hosting duties, journalists, players and fans alike expressed concern that the region's infamous struggles with racial tension, and a checkered record for fan violence, would impact negatively on the tournament. However, by and large, the breathless nature of the vast majority of matches (England's defeat to Italy on penalties the first goalless draw of the tournament) has been the man topic of conversation.
I love the Euros. The tournament will always hold a special place in my heart, if for no other reason than the fact that Euro '96 is the first memory I have of the beautiful game. England's performances in that heady summer inflamed an intrigue and excitement within me for the sport which remains unabated 16 years on. This summer's showing has been no exception; there have been some sensational moments, from Shevchenko's brace in joint-host Ukraine's first game, to Greece's unlikely qualification to the quarter-finals. Even Andrea Pirlo's chipped penalty against England, as much as it hurts to remember, was a simply breathtaking moment in a tournament of great quality.
England's exit at the quarter-final stage - something that some consider to be an inevitable occurrence when the Three Lions approach a major tournament - has been analysed and re-analysed from the very moment ex-West Ham winger Alessandro Diamanti slid his winning penalty into the corner of Joe Hart's net, and the reaction has generally been mixed. While some have been quick to
condemn what was an underwhelming England performance against the 2006 World Cup Winners - a game where England's entire midfield failed to make as many successful passes as the majestic Pirlo, where the team conceded more shots on target in one match than they had mustered in all four of their games in Ukraine put together - others have risen to manager Roy Hodgson's defence, praise for the effort of the players and coaching staff considering the length of Hodgson's tenure so far - topping a tough group and scoring 5 goals in 3 games a solid effort for a team in transition.
What England's defeat does show, however, is how far the team has to go until it is ready to challenge the biggest in Europe, let alone the world. Yes, the team managed to avoid defeat against France in their first game, but Les Bleus were hardly at their best (as emphasised by their own meek exit at the hands of Spain), while the matches against Sweden and Ukraine were typical England - each moment of skill, technical class and creativity matched by a heart-in-mouth glimpse of nerves, poor concentration and discipline. For a brief period in the Sweden clash, you will remember, things looked quite bleak indeed. Many suggestions have been put forward, as always, as to what can provide the remedy to this 'condition' that the England camp seems to perpetually struggle with, from better training for young players to the need for higher numbers of English players at top Premier League clubs. The condition is what sets England apart from the
really top teams of Europe, like the Italian side that swept us asunder on Sunday - but I believe it all comes down to culture.
One can hardly blame the England team for the nerves that seem to underly most performances in major tournaments, that is not the purpose of this post. Every tournament that the team goes into is punctuated by huge expectation, and even this year, where so many commentators spoke of 'historically low expectations', no one really
meant it. If expectations were, in fact, historically low, there would be no post-mortems after a quarter-final exit - surely expectations had been exceeded? No, this was never the case for the British public, or, more profoundly, the British press. After that 1-1 draw against France in Donetsk, The Sun's website hosted an article with the headline 'Job Donetski' - and if one ignores the rather spurious pun, the purpose of the article is to congratulate the English team on a job well done against tough opponents, no? Well, not half an hour later, the article was replaced by an almost identical piece of copy, with only certain words changed. However, most notably, the headline to the
new article became 'Yippee! We got a draw' - a sarcastic, pessimistic slight on the fact that we, ENGLAND, are happy to have DRAWN a game of football! The connotation, of course, is that we should be winning every game, a prime example of the kind of unhelpful, irresponsible journalism that blights the England players in these situations.
Similarly, in the final stages of the quarter-final against Italy, the only word on anyone's lips - be it the BBC pundits or the ever-enthralling Mark Lawrenson, Twitter users or fans in the stadium - was penalties. When the time came for the shoot-out, we were shown endless clips of
unsuccessful England spot-kicks in similar situations, every statistic spewed by Lawro and his faux-enthusiastic cohort Guy Mowbray was of who has missed for England and when, barely any focus given to successful spot-kicks of the past. How many national teams are there who, when leading in a penalty shootout, still assume they're going to lose it?
This is the key problem for England going forward, and the most significant issue is that there is absolutely no easy or logical solution at hand. How does one go about completely overhauling how an entire nation views the national team? Personally, I don't know how it can ever be achieved - the only possible way that this self-fulfilling prophecy machine can be switched off is to unplug it at the mains. There will, one day, be an England team that wins a major tournament in the face of all the negativity - maybe, just maybe, there will come a day when we will even knock the Germans out of the World Cup on penalties. My point about culture is easy to understand, but it passes us by unless we really strive to find examples when they occur: in England, quite simply, we have a predisposition towards negativity where the national football team is concerned. Think about it - every introduction Adrian Chiles or Gary Lineker deliver before an England game will include a phrase such as 'here we go again', 'it's never easy!' or 'same old England'. At times, such as after our defeat to Italy, I even begin to think that certain members of the media are even gleefully rubbing their hands together - after all, Ashley Young hitting the bar in the shootout will make a lovely clip to show for the next 20 years. I mean, for goodness' sake, we still are forced to watch Chris Waddle skying that fateful penalty against West Germany in 1990 - and as much as we think that times have changed, I believe even bothering to watch such things has an affect.
Look at Italy's defeat of Germany on Thursday evening - a result which, in all fairness to the Azzurri, has come from left field. Germany were hotly fancied to challenge Spain for their title, and most agreed that we would at least get to see a showdown between the two on Sunday. However, before the game it was endless clips of previous Italy victories over their opponent - some, like Grosso's superb winner in 2006 might still seem relevant today, considering that some of the players present at the time are still in the national side today, however others, like Marco Tardelli's sliding winner in the 1982 World Cup final, seem nothing more than ancient relics. However, what has happened? Italy have gone on to pull off another victory over the Germans, and the culture of self-belief in these situations continues, and is strengthened.
History shapes culture in such a profound way that it can directly impact the future, I believe this is plain to see. If this is not the case, why do we always say that 'Germany always win at penalties', or indeed, that England always lose them? Steven Gerrard should be no worse at penalties than Bastian Schweinsteiger, but who would you bet on to score in the European Championship final? Culture shapes our attitudes, and creates an atmosphere that is easily transferred onto the pitch when national teams walk out. Just imagine how different you would feel about football if you had grown up a German, and rather than a series of heartbreaks, you had experienced consistent success and triumph? You might well, in this situation, feel a great deal more optimistic when your team boards that plane.
As things are, I don't know what can be done in the short term to reverse this process. It will be a gradual evolution, from the pessimism, self-deprecation and sarcasm with which we approach the England team to a future where we are no longer embarrassed to be optimistic or shy away from fancying the team to succeed. Either that, or we could pretend to be German...
