Eliminated England needs talent, Côte d’Ivoire misses advance by one goal
On day 13 of the World Cup we learned that English football talent needs to blossom abroad, England fans aren’t making many friends, one goal steals Côte d’Ivoire’s chances of advances and fortune favours the brave.
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England’s future lies abroad. Much has been made about the influx of foreigners into the English Premier League robbing home talent of the chance to blossom. The English
champions Manchester City really only had Joe Hart as the ever-present Englishman in their side. As for Liverpool, they had four players in the line-up against Italy in England’s first game. Glen Johnson, Steven Gerard, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge. After the 0-0 draw against Costa Rica on day 13 England manager Roy Hodgson thought it might be worth turning the tables. “It would be positive I think if they’re [young players] not getting a chance in their Premier League team … if they’re able to find a good team abroad that would give them that experience and the chance to play regularly. Then, of course, it would be very positive.”
Money, money, money … root of all evil. There’s a line from a song by Massive Attack which mentions this. Actually, the Bible does too. But we’ll stay secular in the daily review, though God knows England need help. But here’s the rub. “The Premier League is a very good league,” said Hodgson. “I think everyone accepts that. It’s also a very rich league so a few of our very young players will already be on salaries which some of these foreign clubs might find hard to match. There is no comparison between salaries in the Premier League – vis-à-vis our number 16 team and the Spanish, Italian, French, German number 16 team. Our salaries are so much higher. That, of course, tends to keep people in the country and it attracts a lot of very good players to the country.”
Fans for the memory. There was a moment in the first half when the crowd at the Estadio Mineirao did the obligatory Mexican wave. Round it went but the part of the ground containing the England fans failed to flap its arms. Perhaps the fans had all been drinking too much of the local brew. The rest of the crowd carried on anyway. Midway through the second half a number of the England supporters became involved in some finger pointing and general ugliness with fans in an adjacent section. That certainly didn’t go down well with the rest of the stadium who joined in a hearty rejoinder of: “Eliminados! Eliminados! Eliminads!” Dare say the burros got the gist.
It’s not just England who are suffering. Pain has hit nine teams so far including the world champions Spain. A few more will join them after the final round of games in Groups E and F on day 14. Côte D’Ivoire were on the verge of advancing to the last 16 for the first time until a goal in the last minute. That has got to be tough. But clearly not if you’re Greek.
Fortune favours the brave. A taxi driver called Cesar came to the airport. Saw the daily review and conquered the rules of the time-space continuum to deliver us to the hotel in Belo Horizonte. Ever since then we’ve been girding our loins for the return journey. Classically fitting then, that a man called Romulo should return us to the airport. He was everything that Cesar wasn’t. Plus the flight left on time and landed punctually. So that’s 3-2 to good airport experiences.
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