Soccer Lessons

As the Spanish were crowned World Cup winners in Joburg, the curtain came down on the first World Cup Finals to be staged in Africa. European countries achieved a 1-2-3 with Spain beating The Netherlands in the World Cup final together with Germany taking 3rd place after a 3-2 success against Uruguay.

This definitely backs up the case that European football is the most powerful worldwide and that the European Championships are a very good tournament. Qualifying matches for the Euro 2012 finals begins in Sept and in spite of finishing third, Germany will definitely be one of the favourites to win Euro 2012. Their young side played some impressive football throughout the World Cup with Thomas Muller getting the Golden Boot with 5 goals and 3 assists. With other young starlets like Ozil, Boateng and Kediera, Germany will be one of the teams to look out for.

As current World and European champions, Spain will be a tough opposing team. A lot of their team will still be young enough in 2012 to offer solid opposition and they will certainly be keen to defend their title.

For once the Netherlands were able to abandon their individual egos at home during the World Cup and thus, they got to their 3rd World Cup final conquering a lot of peoples favourite, Brazil, along the way. With more effective finishing from Robben, the Netherlands might possibly have won the tournament as opposed to Spain and they will hope to keep going in the same vein throughout Euro 2012.

The typically powerful nations of France, England and Italy all failed miserably in South Africa and subsequently, the curtain will absolutely come down on quite a few of the older footballers careers. England have a number of fascinating young footballers to take to the international stage and if they can replicate the German team, there will be high hopes amidst the English supporters.

The Euro 2012 host nations of Poland and Ukraine will both get amazing support but in the long run, they most certainly accomplish not have the quality to seriously challenge for the title.

As England left these shores for South Africa a couple of weeks ago, there was much expectation that finally, the team may bring the trophy home. However, that dream was destroyed in no uncertain terms by the old enemy Germany in Bloemfontein as England crashed out of the competition losing 4-1. How might possibly such an experienced team who qualified so easily fail to perform? Not surprisingly, the English media has found no shortage of scape goats and explanations for what was England’s worst defeat at a World Cup. There has been lots of talk about the Italian manager, formations and more but the issues are a lot more serious.

Since its formation in 1992, the Premiership has achieved outstanding success as an international brand. The price of this success has been felt by English football. Increased TV money has forced wages to increase. Therefore this has meant there has been an increasing split amongst club and country. Clubs pay their footballers lots of money and are increasingly reluctant to let their footballers play for their national teams.

In return, footballers get greatly rewarded by Premiership clubs to the extent that success is deemed by getting excellent contracts rather than anything they achieve on the pitch. Mediocre players who rarely turn out for their teams are still millionaires and the minute these players put money ahead of playing games at club level, there is certainly little doubt they do not have the mental strength or hunger to play international football.

In the past, there was always a regional reserve league which meant young players from lower league clubs could be guaranteed to play against decent reserve sides from bigger clubs like Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs and Man Utd. Nevertheless, in recent years, the EPL has changed which means they will only play against other Premiership reserve teams. This means that Championship reserve teams no longer get to play versus Premier League sides. For teams like Ipswich Town, it means their reserve team now plays versus Stevenage as opposed to Tottenham and this drop in standard in opposition no doubt has a negative effect on the learning curve of young footballers.

With such a lot of money at stake, things are targeted at Premier League survival. Teams spend large sums of money recruiting allegedly first-class foreign managers and players in a bid to maintain their Premiership status. The ambition of promoted clubs to the EPL extends no further than finished 4th bottom. The Premier League cash bonanza means that EPL clubs can provide £1-2m for young players at lower division teams. The footballers are keen to move and secure their financial futures but it could possibly also signal the end of their careers. The young Crystal Palace star signed for Spurs but almost never made an appearance and was last seen on loan at Brentford, a division lower than when he was at Crystal Palace. From a football view, Bostock would have been best served staying at Palace and learning his trade. How many more young footballers careers are cut down like this chasing after the money as an alternative to playing the match?  It’s difficult to blame the young players for taking the money.

There is also the widely used accusation that clubs take part in too many matches in England and increasingly more managers want a winter break. However, players don’t look to be tired as asked to fly off to the United States or Far East on pre-season visits. Or how about England’s friendly game next June away in Thailand?

There are so many ready made excuses for failure that footballers are ready to accept. They live a life well away from real life with their mansions, expensive cars and trophy wives. Put simply, there is not enough hunger or desire.

The fixture in Thailand also highlights another hassle. As well as the EPL being an international brand name, so are the England team. Folks want to witness the big EPL stars play for England and in friendlies like this, those stars will be expected, if not contracted, to turn out.  Even so, it is not the case that the leading 11 footballers make the finest team. Too a large number of players are in the team based on good reputation rather than performances. Young players should be promoted into the senior squad sooner.

For the imminent Euro 2012 campaign, England should do away with the services of all players aged 30 or over. None of them have performed in South Africa therefore why should Capello persevere with them. It would be significantly better to promote younger footballers who may still be hungry for success. Having said that, while the worshiping of the Premier League remains, things are not likely to improve anytime soon.