England pay the penalty…. again

And I quote: “Now for the winner takes all stage, although in the past we have seen countries play for penalties. I just don’t see that this time.” I wrote that the other day and then England came along last night.

For the whole of extra time we played to protect our goal and take the game to the lottery of a penalty shoot-out. Yet, what we didn’t account for is our record in penalty shoot-outs!

Then again unlike in previous tournaments winning would have been unjust. Italy with Pirlo supreme, just passed and stroked the ball around us as we chased around after them, hoping for a toe in or a block.

It was hard to be proud of that performance Sunday night, but overall I think Hodgson and his players can leave with their heads held high.  The more realistic couldn’t see us getting out of the group, yet we won it with a decimated squad and Hodgson restored pride and spirit back into playing for and watching the national side. Lost qualities such integrity and singing the national anthem gave me some hope for better days.

Question is, when will those better days come? Jack Wilshire and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain aside, there are so few shining lights out there, and if there are, then they are flitting their careers away in large expensive Premier League squads packed full of foreign players. Finally the FA with it’s Burton Football Centre are doing something about it but this won’t produce players until 2020, Euro 2016 at a real push.

How Hodgson will develop his squad over the next 4 years remains to be seen, but we are so far away from the world’s best footballing nations, even the second-best ones. Scott Parker epitimised it for me. He ran his balls off yesterday and played way above himself with his energy sapped but he is a painter and decorator compared to the Leonardo da Vinci, which is Andrea Pirlo.

Frankly the canonised English Premier League has left us with a group of hard working Englishmen, whilst the foreign players that it employs just pass a football around us while they wear the colours of their birthplace. Their fat wallets left back in the dressing rooms.

I like that we play with the English bulldog spirit, it sets us apart. We don’t need 11 Pirlo’s but we need to be able to pass a ball from A to B, and we need our world class players at the top of their game, and Rooney was not, and five players that can score from 12-yards would be a bonus.

I said it before the tournament that I would be happy if we used Euro 2012 as a rebuilding exercise, the same applies to Brazil 2014 qualifying, but the Jordan Henderson’s and Andy Carroll’s may well be good enough to push us past Moldova, Montenegro, Ukraine et al, but when it comes to the world’s best we are on a different playing field quite literally.