Well done the Germans, you deserved the 4-1 win, and the fact that England were appalling should not detract from your glory. OK so we know, the whole world except for FIFA know that Lampard’s shot bounced down over the line, and that would have brought the score back to 2-2. We can talk about what might have happened all day long, but it doesn’t alter the fact, England were rubbish and didn’t deserve to take it to penalties let alone win.
Ever since England have been involved in World Cups, there has always been a tragic, controversial or calamatious end. You can go back to 1950 when the USA turned them over. 1970 when they let a 2- goal lead slip, and lost 3-2 to the Germans. That wasn’t helped by some rather ordinary goal keeping from Chelsea’s Peter Boneti, who was deputising for Gordon Banks, allegedly, according to some conspiracy theorists, the victim of food poisoning.
Then we had the ‘Hand of God’, Gazza’s tears, Penalty shoot-out, Beckham’s send-off, Penalty shoot-out, Beckham’s injured foot, Rooney’s injured foot, Rooney’s send-off, Penalty shoot-out, now we have the ‘Hand of Clod’ and the goal that never was. The story goes on and on and on.
But isn’t that what the World Cup is all about for England? It’s a tragedy waiting to happen, and it comes around every four years to haunt every English football fan. What it has done is given the football world another talking point to go on and on about for the next 50 years. Payback for 1966 say the Germans, and you can’t really argue with that.
