Ordinary Gweilo

It’s a feature of England qualifying campaigns.  There will always be a stage where England appear to have blown it, followed by a reprieve caused (at least in part) by another team.

This time it did appear that England would dig themselves out of the hole all by themselves, with a string of 3-0 victories (notably at home to Israel and Russia), but five minutes in Moscow put an end to that little plan.  I was rather surprised to hear the commentator say that Russia’s 2nd goal would mean that England wouldn’t qualify, and indeed it was based on the assumption that Russia would go on to beat Israel.  Hardly a foregone conclusion, as the two sides had drawn in Moscow, and Israel had held England to a 0-0 draw at home (and Russia had lost 3-0 to England away, and drawn 0-0 with Croatia prior to that).  However, it makes a better story to assume the worst, and most English newspapers have spent the last few weeks speculating about whether Steve McLaren would be sacked when England failed to qualify.

Then Israel beat Russia 2-1 on Saturday night, and England are back in with a real chance of qualifying.

The commentary on the game on Cable TV was amusingly Anglocentric.  When Israeli players made errors, they were chided for letting England down (in a way that no English commentator would ever do to an England player).  When Israel scored their injury-time winner, the commentator breathlessly informed us that England would now only need a draw against Croatia – as if that was the only thing that mattered.  Yes, maybe in Hong Kong that was the main concern, but this game will have been watched elsewhere in the world, probably by some people who either don’t care whether England qualify – or even hope that they don’t.

Now the pessimism will be replaced with mindless optimism.  Surely England can get a draw against Croatia at Wembley?  I guess the people at ESPN/Star Sports will be hoping they do.