“Three Lions on a shirt, Jules Rimet still gleaming. Thirty years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming”. It’s been 18 years since Euro 96 and England are still dreaming. 30 years on from the 1966 World Cup and England’s failure to capture another major trophy, poetically written into song and sung by thousands at Wembley Stadium provided the soundtrack to yet another heroic failure by the England football team. It’s now 48 years since that fateful day in 1966 where Hurst, Charlton, Moore et al put England on top of the footballing pinnacle. It was and still is the greatest day in England’s footballing history. It was also the worst. A bold statement when you think of some of the horror shows England have put on over the years, failure to qualify for the 74, 78, & 94 World Cups, the qualification games against Croatia where goalkeeping blunders led to another failure to qualify, Maradona’s hand of God and 5 penalty shootout defeats. So how can winning the World Cup be the worst thing England ever did?
England 1966
First, why was it the best day for England? England were World Champions. That is a truly hard achievement, the Netherlands a truly remarkably football nation who invented total football and have produced such great footballers as Johan Cruyff, Marco Van Basten, Edgar Davids & Ruud Gullit, have been to 3 finals and yet have never won the World Cup. Great players such as Platini, Puskas & Eusabio never won the World Cup, players like Giggs, Best, Di Stéfano & Weah never even played in finals, so England’s achievement in 1966 is something to be proud of, for those that witnessed it something to remember and treasure and something to strive towards and get back to. And therein lies England’s greatest problem. Expectation.
For 48 years England have been held up to a standard that their main body of work would seem to suggest they are not capable of. England are on the whole, at best, a quarter final team, with the potential to spring an upset and make it to a Semi-Final. This is not a bad thing. England are a second tier nation along with France, the Netherlands, Portugal Argentina & Uruguay. They are part of that group of nations that historically have good players but are just a level below the true competitors of Brazil, Germany & Italy who have 12 World Cup wins between them. So since 1966 England have approached each tournament with the expectation that English spirit will be enough to sweep aside all in their path to the final and that somehow, England have a god given right to be one of the best teams in the world.
When England won the World Cup the country took a step back looked at itself and marvelled at its achievements, whereas their opponents on that day, West Germany, took a step back and looked at where they failed. The Germans progressed their football and as the modern game evolved so did they, moving forward to 2 World Cup (to add to the one the won in 1954) and 3 European Championships while England hung on to the glories of the past. Even recently when results started to falter Germany infused their squad with new youthful talent leading them to at least the Semi- Finals in the last 3 World Cups and last 2 European Championships.
Does this mean England should never hope to win a major international trophy again? No. Denmark and Greece have proved that shocks do happen and Spain have showed that with the right team a country can move from the second tier of nations to become the best team in the world, however time will tell if they stay there and have the longevity of Brazil, Germany and Italy.
England have a young team and have the potential to develop into a strong contender, however the English public and press must temper the lofty expectations set forth by the heroes of 1966 or the ghosts of previous failures could well come back to haunt them once again.
For the latest sports injury news, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert.
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow my Twitter account –@CostOfWinning. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter –@LastWordOnSport – and “liking” our Facebook page.
Feel free to discuss this and other footy related articles with thousands of fans at r/football.
