The No-call Goal Spares England

The good news for England in light of the dreadful decision to not count Frank Lampard's goal is that they are actually being spared from receiving the full brunt of criticism on their performance. Instead, we're talking about goal-line technology and FIFA’s stubbornness as well. For sure, there’s still a ton of blame placed on the players, the FA, Capello, etc -- but they're getting a decent diversion nonetheless.

While there can be no doubt England were robbed of a goal and that a single goal certainly has a big impact on the game, I’m falling into the camp that believes Germany were on their game and that England would have still lost under any circumstances.

Based on what I saw (for all 4 games), I'm just not seeing any chance that England would have miraculously found some new, higher level of play had the game been tied. They came out in the second half as flat, disorganized and uninspired as they had in the three previous games. And I ‘m sorry, a 1 nil win over Slovenia with the only goal coming off DeFoe’s shin does not equate to the “The Lion’s have roared!” proclamation and the belief that all of their problems are solved as the England coach and press were going on about afterward.

Part of what’ driving this rant against England is when I saw David James’ post game comment of: “Germany would have crumbled had the goal counted…” I beg your pardon? This was a totally lame comment coming from a very average keeper who personally should have dealt with three of Germany’s goals had he been playing better. Talk about a state of denial. Or how about: “we would have come out full throttle after the half…” from the absent Rio Ferdinand? So Rio, are you saying that at one goal down in a World Cup knock out game, England wasn’t already motivated enough to come out at “full throttle”? Was half-throttle all that was needed?

In fact, I’m almost ready to say enough to this much hyped England-Germany rivalry. I’m getting a little tired of the English press, fans and players talking this thing up every time. Yes, it’s a big game. So is Germany-Argentina, Holland-Brazil, but enough with the ’66 Final references, the PK history, the WW2 stuff (“Two World Wars and One World Cup, doo-dah, doo-dah” …don’t Germany’s three World Cups and three European titles, and the fact that they qualify for every tournament sort of make that a moot point?)…

But notice I said “almost” – with German victories like this 4:1, I’m perfectly happy to keep up the hype a bit longer.