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The scandal of England’s World Cup semi-final capitulation is already enshrined in the extensive annals of mythological failure; failure so gloriously tepid and inept it’s barely failure at all, rather a perfectly pitched lyrical paean to the sacred, desperate art of getting in your own way as wimpishly as possible. It is beautiful.
The truth, though – and part of the beauty – is it remains an ultimately futile act. Let’s say England see out the win, setting up a final meeting with Spain: Emlyn, what happened next?
Spanish football stye is, without doubt, the hardest there’s ever been to beat. We saw it with Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, Vicente del Bosque’s national team – and now with Luis de la Fuente’s European and World champions. None of those sides were or are without obvious, glaring flaws, and yet their ability to look after the ball; their command of angles, most particularly of movement and first touch; their commitment to their principles; leave all opponents with an impossible dilemma: try to beat them by being more like them, or try to beat them by playing in a way they are expert at neutralising. Good luck, chaps.
Which is to say that, had England eliminated Argentina in Atlanta, they’d almost certainly have lost the final in the same predictable way they lost the Euro final. However – football being a perfectly balanced sport in which to cover one hole you necessarily leave another open – there’s always a however. So, however: that embarrassment of England’s defeat might, finally, have forced home the bitter reality that teams who cower and hope time runs out quickly enough to save them are not teams who win tournaments.
Tonight’s match will take a decent barometer of how deeply they believe an axiom proved infallible over many, many decades. The game being the game, a result that would once have been the difference between progress and not barely matters, given both sides are already through to the next stage. But this contest is not about that, rather about whether England can find a way of imposing themselves – on Spain, but also on themselves, for there is beauty in that too
