Why I Feel Sorry For England

Much like the now stereotypical English condiment, you either love or hate the English football team when World Cup time comes around. Not being from England, my level of interest towards them peaks when they face my (half) home team of Italia. (Vivo Azzurro!).

What's not to like?

Now onto the title of the post, after all, this is what it's all about. When England played their first game against Italy, I have to say I didn't feel too bad at their 2-1 loss. In fact, I was quite pleased to say the least. But after their defeat to Uruguay, my feelings changed.

It's the same cycle every four years for the World Cup, and for the Olympics with "Team GB", which needs a whole new article.

English media hype around the games comes to a head a few months before opening day. They swarm around the topic like it's going out of fashion, and put tonnes of undue pressure on the players. They heighten expectations to monumental levels, boosting a false morale among the supporters, who's expectations rise twice as high, because it's the most exciting tournament ever!

"This is our year," they say. However, for 3 years previous virtually nothing is heard, or said of the national team, discounting the Euros, of course.

The team is made up of good players - players who make up the top teams of English leagues. Yes, it's possible that against the likes of Messi they aren't going to fare so well, but media pressure has a lot to answer for.

So much pressure is put on the team in such a short space of time, and when they don't live up to the wondrously high expectations, it is the greatest failure known to man. Even now, newspapers are commenting with a lot of "but's" - "...but if this happens and this happens, they can scrape through!"

No wonder fans go mental and lash out at the players, and it's not hard to imagine how the players must be feeling...



And so it will be until next time...

Image Credits to: Nationale di Italiana di Calcio Facebook page, Various Tumblrs