Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utai.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!utai!nunes From: nunes@utai.UUCP (Joe Nunes) Newsgroups: net.sport Subject: England-86 Message-ID: <1278@utai.UUCP> Date: Tue, 11-Feb-86 09:19:42 EST Article-I.D.: utai.1278 Posted: Tue Feb 11 09:19:42 1986 Date-Received: Tue, 11-Feb-86 11:24:47 EST Distribution: net Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto Lines: 78 *** What Is the Worth of England-86? *** (The ease of qualification doesn't necessarily indicate high class) Without involving ourselves in the study of the characteristics of English football, very notable in the contrast between its global potential and the quality of its top squad, what can be said about the English team which, for good or ill, is Portugal's first adversary in Mexico? If we were statistics-crazy and thought of them in an absolute and non-analytic way we would say that, in the face of an incredibly easy undefeated advancement to the final round in which the English side scored 21 goals and allowed only 2 goals in 8 games, England was, without a shadow of a doubt, an awesome adversary; an adversary before which our "little" national football, pretty and decorated but very clearly sub-competitive, didn't have the slightest chance. Well, the truth as we see it is far from being that. First of all, because England was involved in one of the weakest and least balanced European groups, and secondly because we don't have it as an irreversible fact that the national destiny is to be trampled by a squad that, according to its traditional style, plays "broken" in a very characteristic wide spatial extent and with a more or less lightning-fast rhythm. To illustrate our thesis let us note these facts: 1. England had as competitors in its group Turkey, Finland, Romania, and Northern Ireland. Teams that no one can place among the best in Europe. Contrast this with Portugal's adversaries that, aside from the gift of Malta, consisted of no less than West Germany, Sweden and Czechoslovakia. All teams with somewhat intimidating credentials. 2. After our difficult paleozoic era of football relations with England, marked by that historical 10-0 loss in the Estadio Nacional on May 25 1947, we have progressively adapted ourselves to that inelastic style of play, making our "football in contrast" perturb and disunite them, in the same manner that, in worse times, we were perturbed and disunited by them and left swimming at sea. To prove this last point we note that since 1964 the worst that we have done is to barely lose, and that in the last 3 games, played between 1974 and 1975, we imposed draws, one of these at Wembley, a difficult task as we all know. Date Location Score 17-05-64 Lisbon 3-4 04-06-64 Sao Paulo 1-1 26-07-66 London 1-2 10-12-69 London 0-1 03-04-74 Lisbon 0-0 20-11-74 London 0-0 19-11-74 Lisbon 1-1 In conclusion: if it's not easy to beat England, the truth is that competing against her is at least becoming more natural, an important factor in a tournament such as the first round in Mexico. Still awaiting a total definition of England-86, all at this point revolves around this main idea: it's impossible for any English team to be bad, but this doesn't imply that it must be great, since in the life of great teams, made up of only 11 men, there are important factors aside from "average quality" and "depth" of each nation's football resources. This is equivalent to saying that England's qualification to the World Cup doesn't necessarily indicate high class. The real test which begins in Monterrey will bear little resemblance to the confrontations with the Turks, Finns, Romanians, and Northern Irish. In any case it is enough to know that the England of Bobby Robson has the obligatory good team in which (without taking anything away from traditional English collectivism) the following three players are notable: - Bryan Robson. Captain and the team's engine. A king of the midfield and match-winner par excellence. - Peter Shilton. A goalkeeper of already semi-mythical proportions which, aside from his extraordinary qualities can boast of having already beaten the number of internationals of Gordon Banks, the keeper that so helped England's conquest of the World title in 1966. - Ray Wilkins. One of the emigrants that plays in Italy, in the "failed" Milan side. There he has been a fixture of competitive regularity in the midfield. As we can see, England-86 can be placed between a zone of certainty (competitive frenzy, speed, "pressing" capacity) and a zone of uncertainty (the extra output to be provided by its exceptional players); a team that many feel will be severely handicapped in Monterrey not by the altitude but by the heat, with its 40 degree C. peaks common even in June.