Travelling Light

There is a slight irony in the fact that the England football team could learn from a quotation from one of Scotland’s foremost novelists, in order to fully appreciate their relationship with the World Cup in recent times. For, since the seventies at least, Robert Louis Stevenson’s edict that “to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour” really sums up the endeavours of the men wearing the Three Lions.

For perhaps the first time since the days of  the 1966 triumph, England arrive at a World Cup virtually unheralded and with a general consensus that the national team will probably do well to emerge unscathed from the group. Not only is everyone aware of this, most are comfortable with it. 

This is a situation so alien to most England fans brought up on a diet of jingoistic fervour every four years, some of us have had to revert to type and assume the attempt to downplay the team’s chances are merely to lull the other nations into a false sense of security when playing the national side. Why there’s even been a psychology coach – Steve Peters and his ‘inner chimp’ – brought in by Roy Hodgson to further confuse opponents. 

So subtle is this ploy, some rumours have  suggested England may even have the mental capacity to deal with a penalty shoot-out should they manage to get to the knock-out stages. It is indeed a cunning plan.

That the ‘thirty years of hurt’ – it will be half-a-century soon and they will have to write a new song just to fit it in -  looks unlikely to be unchallenged again in 2014, isn’t really the surprise; After all, everyone is used to that by now. What is shocking is that everyone is just so resigned to joyful travelling, happy that the real success is just being in Brazil at all.

It’s rarely been so.

My first blog as England correspondent for ESPN was for the 2002 competition in Japan and South Korea where England arrived off of the back of a last minute wonder free-kick by David Beckham against Greece – a victory that consigned Germany to the Play-off’s, lest we forget – and a tournament where bitter rivals Argentina were also despatched en route to a quarter-final spot against Brazil. 

With Sven Goran Eriksson in charge, Beckham as talisman and the memories of a glorious 5-1 win over Germany in Munich in the qualifiers, England started the match with high hopes, but they were dashed by a 2-1 score line in an insipid performance against a Brazilian side – a match in which England  lead and Brazil played with ten men for 30 minutes – where it almost seemed as if the team in white were just happy to have  a close game against the eventual winners.

With the tournament petering out in such a poor semi-final match-up that England fans were even willing Germany to get past South Korea and Brazil to beat Turkey so some semblance of a final could be enjoyed, it all became a rather familiar feeling; one where opportunities had been lost

In a glorious tournament in Germany in 2006 – the only World Cup I’ve ever been lucky enough to attend – England again flattered to deceive, emerging  as group leaders and defeating Eucador before once again slipping out at the quarter-final stage on penalties against Portugal with Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher all missing from the spot in a ‘Did that really happen?’ moment that looks more unbelievable now than it did at the time. In this match, it was England who finished with ten men as Wayne Rooney was sent off after a famous tussle with Cristiano Ronaldo and his wink. Eriksson resigned as manager and Fabio Capello was eventually named as his successor.

In South Africa in 2010, goalkeeper Robert Green’s astonishing blunder which allowed a speculative Clint Dempsey shot to slip through his hands, gave the U.S.A a 1-1 draw with England and thus saw the Americans qualify as group winners , forcing the Three Lions to face their old foe Germany in the Group of 16. 

In the seemingly  inevitable result – and as if the 4-1 defeat wasn’t enough - the match was marred by an obvious ‘goal’ by Lampard being ruled out as ‘not crossing the line,’ despite the ball being at least a foot over. This was a decision that would have seen England go in level at 2-2 at half-time and, so seismic was the error, so loud the intake of breath from the rest of the football world, even Sepp Blatter was forced to concede that goal-line technology was required.

This time around though, the expectations are different as, frankly, there are none. Roy Hodgson’s intriguing blend of youth and experience has one eye on the future; the senior players can have a last hurrah and the younger ones can just learn and step up in Russia or Qatar. Of course there’s nothing to see here: move along please! 

And yet…and yet… IF England were to emerge from the group, a quarter-final place would look a good possibility. But is there a need to fall into the old way of thinking? That we’re England and we should do well because we invented the game and were probably better at it than anyone for half-a-century but we were so arrogant we never thought it worth proving? Perhaps it’s better to accept that this is a clean slate, enjoy the journey and not worry.

In fact, forget the Scotsman - let’s go with the old Japanese proverb that says ‘It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive disenchanted”. Now that is a mantra any England fan can understand!