HOPES TOO HIGH FOR ENGLAND?ITS ALWAYS THE SAME

Its a great sight if you live in England.St.George's Cross flags everywhere-cars,houses,pubs and even flying over Number 10.Its great for the nation's bonding.But will it end in the usual disappointment somewhere along the road?Almost certainly yes of course,but not right now.You hear always the same claim,"Our best chance since 1966.We have great players like Wayne Rooney.We have a great coach in Fabio Capello.We are in an easy group and could have a decent path to the final and then its anyone's".If only it was that simple.An Englishman cannot win the Mens Singles at Wimbledon.Fred Perry the last to do so in 1936.England as we know have only won the World Cup in football once-at home,all at Wembley in 1966.The late Sir Bobby Robson came oh so close in 1990 losing the semi-final penalty shoot-out in Turin.I was there,ironically sitting next to the late,great 1966 England captain Bobby Moore in the broadcasting seats.We both winced and suffered together.Would you trust England to win a crucial,late stage penalty shoot-out?So what might happen.England will top Group C.They would then face the runners up of the much tougher Group D in the last 16 knock-out stage-from Germany,Serbia,Australia or Ghana.Should just do that and into the quarter-finals where most likely to meet France.Then England-if as we would hope still in it-would expect to face either Brazil or Holland.Should England surprise most and reach the final I would expect,Argentina,Spain or Italy to be waiting.And by the way if we were runner's up in Group C our next opponents would then probably be Germany,into the quarters facing Argentina or Spain.Still think England will win the World Cup?As an Englishman I would love it.As a veteran of covering 7 World Cup finals from 1974 to 2002 ( missed 1978) I cannot see it.
In my next blog I will give you my World Cup champions.