John Carlin’s World Cup Blog: The Hand of Roo?

The genius from Rosario vs Toxteth's finest: a mouth-watering prospect ...

John Carlin, author of  Invictus and football writer for leading newspapers around the world, is covering the World Cup for Citywire.

A text received today from a friend of a friend in Kuwait - an Englishman, needless to say:

‘This World Cup has turned out like World War Two. The French surrender early, the English are left to fight the Germans and the USA arrive at the last minute.’

I’ve been trying to think of ways of extending the metaphor to other World Cup nations. I suppose we could bring in the Italians, who did not have a very good war, as I recall, and most definitely have had a calamitous 2010.

Maybe also Spain who, if they bottle it against Chile tonight, will be left as bystanders for the remainder of the hostilities.

Japan? As splendidly as they did last night, we should perhaps stop there.

This is war!

Football, though, is, of course, war by other means, from which it follows that the World Cup is world war by other means. Some nations prefer to forget World War Two; some, such as the English, for whom that was, in Churchill’s famous phrase, the finest hour, remember it all the time.

If you’re an England football fan, you sort of have to. Since the World Cup victory of 1966 – won in no small measure thanks to a line judge from the Allied nation that fought most bitterly against the Germans – it’s been sadly slim pickings.

Not least if you compare it with what Germany has achieved since then. In those ten World Cups the Germans have been world champions twice; runners-up three times. England have made it to one semi-final, in 1990 – in which they lost against, yes, the Germans.

A heroic battle

Sergeant-Major Fabio Capello has been saying that since the heroic 1-0 victory over Slovenia (population: 2 million) the pressure is off his troops; that they will play without fear. Well, maybe.