After what seems like about a fortnight, finally the 3 Lions kick off their World Cup campaign tonight against Croatia. Now normally I would be a bit nervous going into our opening game, especially as we are playing against a half decent European team with a bit of pedigree. However this time around I feel no nerves. Is that because I am over confident and have full faith in Tommy Tickles and his boys or is it because after years of dissapointment watching England in major tournaments, I have just become passive. Well it's a little bit of A and a little bit of B. As I have got older football has become less and less important, I suppose it just does. Having said that, once we start to progress through the tournament and we get deeper into it, the memories I had of World Cups and Euros past will return and with every passing round and beaten opposition the belief that this time, more than any other time it really is coming home starts to build and suddenly without realising it is happening, your listening to World in Motion and 3 Lions on repeat, draping yourself from head to toe in St Georges flags and telling the world that Jordan Henderson is better than Lionel Messi. We are English and we can't help it, no matter how ridiculous it may seem or how unlikely our patriotic faith in our Country becomes, If we squeeze past Mexico in Mexico at altitude on penalties and reach the Quarters, all of a sudden we are world beaters. To be honest it's what always happens, no matter how rubbish we are we still believe we can do it.
In Both 1986 and 1990 we were no way near good enough to win either of the tournaments but we still thought we were going to beat a Maradona inspired Argentina and a German team filled to the brim with quality players who made our squad look bang average at the very least. This time though we seem to have a squad that has a lot of quality players, in fact I do not have any qualms about the makeup of the squad at all. We have had better players in the past, the so called golden generation Lampard, Gerard, Scholes, Rooney, Owen, Cole, Terry, Ferdinand and all the rest of them but as we now know that squad was just a bunch of individuals and not a cohesive unit. This squad feels different and has been picked to be just that, a squad that matches the way the manager wants to play football, people may question Tuchel's selection and wonder if Trent or Palmer or Harry Maguire should have been on the plane, but Tuchel has his own mind and his own philosophy and he has something that a lot of our former managers didn't have and that is a winning mentality. The thing is that when Southgate stood down from the managerial role he had done a lot of good work to build a positive atmosphere and create a team that worked as a team, the problem was that he was neither tactically or mentally strong enough to take England to the next level. Is Tommy Tickles the man to do that? You know what he just might be, whether or not he does it at this tournament is another thing, but I think he certainly could win us something in thee verry near future. I mean his record coming into this World Cup is perfect. You can't ask for anymore than to win all your games in qualification without conceding a goal. There is no doubt that there are some good teams at this World Cup and Spain, France, Argentina and probably Portugal being the big favourites but I tell you what, we are also one of the favourites for a reason and a lot of that reason is because we have such a good coach, couple that with the outstanding talents we have then we should have every reason to be optimistic.
Personally I think we will fall just short, but I have more belief this time around, then I ever did under Bobby Robson, Ron Greenwood, Sven, Hoddle or even Southgate. The appointment of Tuchel is in my opinion the best since Venables for me, El Tel was a tactical genius who didn't do things by the book and I have no doubt if the FA had just stood by him we would have won a major trophy by now and not still be wating 60 bloody years on. Can Tuchel recreate a similar feel as Venables did in Euro 96 this time round. I really hope he can but hopefully with a little bit of luck he can take us one step further.
As for tonight's opener I reckon it will be a cagey affair and wouldn't be surprised if we drew 1-1, that is of course what my head is saying, my heart however is saying that we win 3-0 and show up Modric and the rest of his old peoples home for what they are. Surely a team with an average age of 33 can't keep performing and reaching the latter stages of major tournaments, can they?
Famous last words!!
Up the 3 Lions!!!
