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World stage England struggling to win international titles
Posted: Thursday June 10, 1999 12:03 PM
LONDON (AP) -- After another Euro 2000 flop, even the ever-optimistic Kevin Keegan has to face the obvious. Despite Manchester United's Champions Cup triumph, England doesn't have players good enough to win international titles. Wednesday's 1-1 tie with Bulgaria in Sofia, four days after a 0-0 draw with Sweden at Wembley, leaves Keegan's team with only an outside chance of gaining a place in next year's European Championship finals. The English are likely to finish behind Sweden and modest Poland in Group 5 and watch the finals on TV. The public and the papers are saying that's not good enough. "Pathetic, abysmal, wretched, chronic, shameful ... call it what you will because it was nothing less than a national disgrace," the tabloid Daily Mail said in describing England's performance in Sofia. "As a football match this was an absolute shambles, an ugly hotchpotch of misplaced passes, ill-timed tackles, nasty behavior and tactical disarray." The headlines weren't much kinder. "On our knees" cried the tabloid Sun. "Boring, drawing England" said the Mirror in a parody of what fans sometimes shout at their opponents. "Waving and drowning in a sea of ineptitude," said the Guardian. "English football is on its knees this morning," said the Sun. "And Kevin Keegan admits his team lacks fantasy, flair, invention and passing ability." Quoted in the London Evening Standard, former Dutch star Johan Cruyff was pretty scathing too. "The passing was poor and the technical qualities were very bad," he said. "The crosses were also very poor. I know England were missing some players, including David Beckham, but that is no real excuse. A country like England shouldn't have to rely just on Beckham to cross the ball. "There must be some more people in English football who can do that but, if not, you had better start teaching others," the former Ajax and Barcelona star said. Several papers said that England, even with several Manchester United players to call on, no longer has anyone to play the role of Paul Gascoigne, whose talent of unlocking defenses with his runs and passes helped the team gain the semifinal of the 1990 World Cup '96 Euros. Recovering from alcohol-related problems, Gascoigne is unlikely to return to the England team but there appears no one to replace him. "What can [Keegan] do?" asked the Daily Express. "He cannot invent craft and wit where it doesn't exist." Team captain Alan Shearer, despite putting England ahead against the Bulgarians, still shows signs that he has never really recovered from the ankle injury that sidelined him for most of 1997 and too much falls on the shoulders of Beckham, who missed the game because of injury. The players say they are tired at the end of a 10-month season and Keegan hopes that they will be refreshed when they face their last two Euro qualifying games against Poland and Luxembourg in September. But England must win them both and also hope that the Poles don't beat Sweden, which almost certainly will have clinched first place by then. The irony for Keegan is that he had planned to say farewell to the team after the Bulgaria game. Initially, he had agreed to take on the role of coach for only four matches while he also remained in charge of division two club Fulham. After guiding Fulham to promotion to division one, however, he relinquished that role and took on the England job on a 3-year contract. Despite the two Euro 2000 flops, he remains optimistic. "The saving grace is that we still have a chance to qualify," he said. "To do that, to be honest, we have to step up massively on the past two games. The Poland game (a 3-1 victory) had signs but we have gone backwards a little bit since then. Again we haven't got beaten but maybe that's not good enough."
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