The beginning of the world’s most prestigious national football event is less than a month away. While the majority of us – Londoners and general Englishmen alike – have high hopes for our Three Lions this summer, the reality is that our chances of hoisting the trophy are slim.
England’s only World Cup success and appearance in the final came back in 1966 when we hosted the competition. And despite the odds on Betfair, the online betting experts who gave the English squad the ninth best odds of winning it all, here are our six reasons why we believe England won’t be bringing back a trophy from Brazil.
1) It’s Across the Pond
No European team has ever won a World Cup in the Americas, North or South. And other than the 2010 Spanish squad, no European team has won outside of Europe. The South American teams have quite simply dominated the American World Cups; in fact only two European squads have made it to those finals—the 1970 Italian squad in Mexico, and the 1962 Czechs in Chile, and lost by a combined score of 7-2.
2) The Group of Death
England received one of the most difficult group draws in the World Cup. Two of our fellow group members are ranked in the top ten of the FIFA World Rankings, Italy and Uruguay. The group also includes a squad from nearby Costa Rica, who many predict will cause an upset when they take on England.
3) The Quality of the Other Squads
If we do manage to make it out of ‘the group of death’, then there are a slew of more talented squads that would be on our slate. Many people are in agreement that Spain, Brazil, Germany, and Portugal simply possess a better squad than ours. And while upsets do happen, could we really expect to beat the Brazilians in Brazil?
4) Penalties
The dreaded achilles heel. Five of our last nine defeats in major tournaments have come from penalty kicks, and as we all know penalties are common place outside group play. To add insult to injury, the last three English World Cup shootouts have all ended in defeat. The results have left many believing that there was a penalty curse. However as The Three Lions Roar reported, the players on the squad have completed over 80% of their penalties this year during league play, which does give us a glimmer of hope I suppose.
5) We’re Living in the Past
From journalists, to us fans, even the players themselves, we’re all guilty of thinking we’re the best, even though it was close to 50 years ago that we actually won the World Cup. While we may have invented the beautiful game, our football side is quite possibly not as good as it once was. England has always been known for playing hard football, making tough tackles and putting in workman like shifts, however is this alone enough to take us to pole position of todays more ‘glamorous’ game?
6) Injuries
No injury was more famous than David Beckham’s metatarsal injury in 2002, which was unheard of before the incident. Since 2002 we’ve seen similar obscure injuries leading into every World Cup. And this year is no different; with several of our best players recovering from injuries, including Rooney.
On a positive note, we still have the best football league in the world, and atleast our national Rugby team is going strong —two things we really should all be proud of.
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