h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Another devastating end to the world cup for us English fans, are we ever going to win it again!! I remember watching the 1966 tournament, my first, and then 1970 when we, quite naturally at that time, fully expected to win again! They were very realistic expectations. These days, although we nearly always expect to win, it is more a case of dreamy, airy fairy, wishy washy fantasy. The guys crack up every time.

You have to hand it to the Italians, they turned out some lovely football and they maintained their composure at the right time. Quite honestly, and I am truly not an Italian fan, they deserved to win it…..unless it turns out there was some fixing going on!!

Well done to the Portuguese as well, apart from the despicable behaviour of Ronaldo they were good to watch and value for money. I do think that England gave the game away as opposed to losing it but the truth is the Portuguese played us out for 120 minutes and then kept their cool while we did not….the difference between winners and losers.

My biggest regret and sadness after England was the exit of Australia, wouldn’t it have been fantastic if they had got through against Italy, they were so close and so desperately unfortunate.

Generally the refereeing was of a high standard, but surely it would be better if technology was introduced into football. Clearly many games are severely influenced by wrong calls from the refs. I am not criticizing them, how could they possibly be 100% correct all the time when the game moves so fast, but why should we have to endure wrong calls anymore though?

It would probably change the flow of the game to a certain extent and probably mean a little more time added on at the end of each half, but that would not affect the quality of the game nor the pace, in fact with the extra added time it could well make each game more exciting. Quite frankly I think they should go the whole way and have the players wear some kind of microphone as well, not for public viewing, but for monitoring to avoid, for example racial barracking.

Overall a great world cup, some great football, magic moments, blood and guts, clearly well organized with a lot of fun and good times for the spectators in attendance, not to mention some great viewing for millions around the world. Congratulations Germany, well done.

So what is the problem with England?

We know we have some of the best players in the world, we know we have as much heart and spirit as anyone else, we know we have the benefit of one of the best leagues in the world, together with some of the best facilities. Our Passion is comparable to anyone, we have a burning desire to win the world cup and the like….i get upset thinking about it!!

The simplistic answers are to blame players for not performing when it counted and the manager for not preparing them properly and poor decisions in some areas. Indeed I agree that a lot of blame should be laid at these peoples doorsteps. I do however think that the real answers lie deeper and that to get to the bottom of it all we are going to have to concede that we, as a whole are getting it wrong somewhere along the line.

I have no doubt that if we stood back and examined the big picture we would find all sorts of points, plans and perspectives that should and could be changed.

I think that the media has to look closely at their role in the whole debacle too. They play a massive role in todays game and quite frankly are too often akin to a very loose cannon.

How do you think you would perform if there were people standing over your shoulder while you worked, criticising and commenting on every single move you made?

The Media builds young stars up to such an extent it is quite logical to expect that their egos are totally inflated which can only lead to unbalanced performance and increased difficulties for management. Then, at will, they largely shoot them down, possibly on the strength of knee jerk reactions to unfounded stories from sources looking to climb on the bandwagon and make a quick buck or get a few moments of fame.

The media surely has to accept a large proportion of the responsibility regarding the presence of the wags. Probably backed up with argument from some of the egos the media have inflated, the wags are there because of the medias appetite for gossip and sensationalism. I have even heard some members of the media try to justify the wags presence as a valid, value adding component to the squad!! How ridiculous.

Tournaments such as the world cup are not about a group of people going somewhere for a good time like some Sunday football club going on a boozy tour thereby providing the media with all sorts of opportunities to create scandal and sell more publications. They are about a professional squad representing their nation and all its people being fully focussed on bringing the cup home by rising to the occasion and playing to the extent of their capabilities and beyond and absolutely nothing else. They are there to work. The wags on tow turns the whole campaign into a circus