As a general matter, England is over-hyped. It’s the nature of the cannibalistic English media; they want the team to fail to meet expectations so they’ll have a fire-the-manager “controversy” to report on. At the same time, the England squads from 1998 on were more talented than any English squad other than the 1966-era one, including the 1990s teams that lost on penalties to the Germans in every tournament. However, those (96’-on) teams were always doomed by poor goalkeeping and poor management.
This England team has not been overhyped, though. As NoveltyBobble and others noted, nobody expected the team to win its group and France were odds-on favorites in British betting shops.
Look at England’s players, though. Other than Gerrard and Rooney, there are no real superstars in sight. The most noticeable characteristic of this team is that there are no other players on it who you’d call dangerous with the ball at their feet.
John Terry was arguably the best defender in Europe at one point, but those days were a long time ago. Ashley Cole seems to have had a bit of a club resurgence last season, but he seemed to be on the downslope of his career otherwise. The only other defenders on the squad with more than 20 caps are Lescott and Johnson, who are no great shakes.
The midfielders are no more distinguished. Walcott and Young are dangerous going forward and a liability when defending. Milner and Parker appear to be distinguished by nothing other than high workrates.
The two forwards who have played (other than Rooney) are the same: imposing physical presence, great in the air, unimpressive with the ball at their feet.
Taking into account the fact that Hodgson got the manager’s job just a month before the tournament, it’s not hard to see why England weren’t expected to do much.
Tell me about this Balotelli guy. Given the amount of screen time he’s commanding, I would think that he’s supposed to be the best player out there, but he’s not doing anything special that I can see. Twice he’s had solid chances at generating shots, and neither time did he wow me with his skills. Is he really good, or just really easy on the cameramen?
Great game so far. Miles better than last night’s debacle.
Just what I was hoping to see from England so far. Building on some stodgy but respectable performances by passing it around with more confidence and showing more attacking intent. A really good opening 25 minutes, but no goal to show for it, and Italy are coming back into the game now. It’s a good game to watch, with chances at both ends.
Kind of a strange game. Italy dominated the first five minutes, then England did for the next ten, then Italy for the last 30. If England continues to give Italy this much possession, then they better damn well take advantage of the few chances they get. Wellbeck has got to put that great pass from Rooney at least on frame. They won’t get a lot of chances like that.
Another great chance for Balotelli, another failure to impress me. Still, Italy has come out hot in the second half with quite a few decent tries and solid play.
The finishing in this game has been horrible. With the amount of chances there have been we should have seen 3 or 4 goals by now.
Balotelli is at least as entertaining for his personal life as he is on the field. He does things like park his car in the middle of the street and bring a paintball gun to practice to shoot the youth team.