The Armchair's Web

The England national team drew 1-1 with the United States in their opening World Cup group match.

Both sides would be happy to finish  the game with the draw, but judging the post-match reaction, we got headlines, such as:

Hand of Clod and Stars ‘N Tripe (News Of The World)

God Save Our Green (Sunday Mirror)

Blunder Pressure and  ….can we just GET A GRIP?! (The People)

Goalkeeper Robert Green dropped the ball from Clint Dempsey’s tame speculative shot and let it slip into the net, giving the US the equaliser after Steven Gerrard had earlier given England the lead. Anyone could have made that mistake. Some pundits have blamed Green’s international inexperience. Others have crudely criticised the design of the new World Cup ball. There is talk of pressure on the players before they meet Algeria on Friday.

The biggest threat to England’s World Cup hopes are not from any of the other teams in their group,  but from a much bigger foe…the national media. TV and newspapers have been making unrealistic expectations on the national team to do well. Excessive column inches have been written and TV air time has been focused on England at the expense of the other 31 teams, including the host nation South Africa. It’s as if the rest of the world didn’t exist.

The perceived strengths and weaknesses of the players have been subject to repeated analysis, and there has been constant wailing over how manager Fabio Capello should play the team. It’s bad enough that journalists who have never played professionally give their tuppence worth… former internationals, including a handful of the surviving 1966 team, have also joined in. Then there is the so-called link between England’s performances on the pitch and the state of the nation in general. Coverage of the team has often been both negative and reduced to a crude sort of jingoistic nationalism.

This sort of anti-foreigner sentiment actually plays into the hands of opponents, who will use such comments in order to play better than they normally would do, and this often works against England. The US richly deserved their equaliser last night, and from an objective viewpoint, were the most likely to the two sides to win the game.

The England team are just as capable as other big sides to go far in the World Cup, but their adventure is being hampered by a media which seems hell bent in some way on ending it.

ITV in World Cup goal-miss fiasco

ITV cocked up in their sports coverage yet again when a technical hitch saw viewers watching through high definition miss England’s goal. As I previously posted, this was one of a number of reasons why ITV should never be allowed to cover live sport.