France World Cup 2010
It's been 3 matches played in the World Cup so far and England has been terrible. Touted as potential champions at the start of the competition, the English have labored to a 1-1 draw with the USA and have been totally toothless in their 0-0 draw against Algeria. They improved a little in their game against Slovenia, but barely beat them 1-0. These are 3 teams that they were expected to beat easily. To make matters worse, their most skillful and passionate player, Wayne Rooney, performed so poorly that he was easily the worst player in the team. So what went wrong?
Some English fans have accused the team of a lack of passion and not caring about representing their country. But this was also the team that performed so magnificently in the qualifying stages with their talisman Rooney on fire. It's also inconceivable that England would be putting in a lack of effort in front of so many fans watching live.
I caught an interview with former Scottish star player Graeme Souness recently who mentioned that the English team's home base and training camp at high attitude might be the problem. He mentioned that when he went to the World Cup with Scotland in 1986, the high attitude in their home base caused great discomfort and tiredness to their players such that they couldn't run and pass the ball properly. The Scottish promptly went out in the first round. Could this be the reason why the English are performing so poorly?
The good news is that if the English survive the initial 3 weeks at high attitude, they'll be super fit. Souness mentioned that when he got back to his club after returning home, he was easily their fittest player, even at the old age of 34.
It's difficult to believe that an experienced coach such as Fabio Capello could have made a mistake with his choice of training camp. What I think is that Capello made a calculated risk that England would be able to get past far inferior opponents on paper and then destroy the opposition in the knockout stages with their superior fitness. It looked like the plan was going to backfire but fortunately England made it. The bad news is that their poor results meant that they now qualify from 2nd place and meet mighty Germany in the 2nd round. Had they qualified from top spot, they would have had a relatively easier game against Ghana.
Was Capello's gamble worth it? We'll have to wait and see.
Roger Cruz is a huge sports fan. Feel free to visit his website where he reviews the Schwinn Motor Scooter and lists the advantages of kids motor scooters.
FIFA World Cup 2010 (part 5: France & Germany)
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