Drills Soccer

When England left these shores for South Africa a couple of weeks ago, there was much hope that at long last, the team could very well bring the trophy home. Nonetheless, that dream was destroyed in no uncertain terms by the old enemy Germany in Bloemfontein as England crashed out of the finals losing 4-1. How could quite possibly such an experienced team who qualified so effortlessly fail to perform? Not surprisingly, the English media has come up with no shortage of scape goats and causes for what was England’s worst defeat at a World Cup. There has been ample talk about the Italian manager, formations and more but the difficulties are a lot deeper.

Since its formation in 1992, the Premier League has achieved wonderful success as a global brand. The cost of this success has been felt by English football. Higher television earnings has pushed wages to rise. Subsequently this has meant there has been an increasing split involving club and country. Clubs pay their footballers an awful lot of money and are increasingly more reluctant to let their footballers play for their countries.

In turn, players get greatly rewarded by EPL clubs to the extent that success is categorized by obtaining money-spinning contracts as a substitute for anything they do on the pitch. Typical players who rarely turn out for their teams are still millionaires and the minute these players put money ahead of playing games at club level, there is actually little doubt they don’t have the mental strength or hunger to play international football.

Typically, there was always a regional reserve league which allowed young footballers from lower league clubs could well be guaranteed playing versus decent reserve teams from bigger teams like Arsenal, Spurs and Manchester United. However, in recent years, the EPL has changed which means they will only play versus other EPL reserve clubs. This means that Championship reserve teams no longer get to play versus EPL sides. For clubs like Ipswich Town, it means their reserve team now plays versus Stevenage rather than Spurs and this drop in standard in opposition obviously has a negative effect on the footballing education of young footballers.

With such a lot of money on the line, everything is geared to EPL survival. Clubs spend large sums of money recruiting theoretically top-quality foreign managers and players in a bid to retain their EPL status. The ambition of promoted clubs to the EPL extends no further than finished 4th bottom. The Premier League cash bonanza means that Premier League clubs can offer you £1-2m for young footballers at lower division sides. The players are keen to move and secure their financial futures but it could possibly also signal the conclude of their careers. The young Crystal Palace star joined Tottenham Hotspurs but scarcely made an appearance and was last heard of on loan at Brentford, a league lower than when he was at Crystal Palace. From a football mind-set, Bostock would have been best served staying at Palace and learning his trade. How many more young footballers careers are curtailed like this chasing after the money rather than playing the match?  Its difficult to blame the young players for taking the money.

There is also the usual accusation that teams take part in too many matches in England and more and more managers want a winter break. All the same, footballers don’t seem to be tired the moment asked to fly off to the United States or Far East on pre-season trips. Or how about England’s friendly match next June away in Thailand?

There are so numerous ready made excuses for failure that players are ready to accept. They live a life well away from the real world with their mansions, luxury cars and trophy wives. Put simply, there is not enough hunger or desire.

The match in Thailand also illustrates another problem. As well as the Premier League being an international brand name, so are the England team. Fans want to view the big Premier League stars play for England and in friendlies like this, those stars will be expected, if not contracted, to turn out.  Even so, it is not the case that the finest 11 footballers make the recommended team. Too a good number of footballers are in the team based on name rather than performances. Young players should be promoted into the senior squad sooner.

For the imminent Euro 2012 campaign, England should do away with the services of all footballers aged 30 or over. None of them have performed in South Africa so why should we persevere with them. It would be much better to promote younger players who may still be hungry for success. Of course, while the worshiping of the EPL continues, things are not going to improve anytime immediately.

The old Wembley Stadium was unveiled in 1923 and had a good reputation for developing one of the best pitches in England. Its wide open spaces would drain the energy from the legs of even the fittest players. Once the Empire Stadium eventually shut its doors in 2000, the magnificent playing surface was torn up along with the entire stadium.

England fans had to wait patiently 7 long years before the new Wembley Stadium opened its doors. The new 90,000 seater stadium was categorised by UEFA as a 5* Elite Arena and is the second largest in Europe after the Camp Nou in Barcelona. The initial full international was played versus Brazil on 1st June 2007.

The building of the stadium was late and well over budget yet the issues didn’t finish there. Operational problems such as defective escalators on match days were experienced but there is an on-going situation that so far has not be adequately tackled – the pitch.

Pitches at brand new stadia often take time to settle down but at Wembley the pitch is a predicament and is most certainly one of the worst around. It cuts up far too easily and players slip over too often. In a recent FA Cup semi final, at least one of the goals was due to a defender slipping at a critical point as the pitch gave way. By the close of the 2009/2010 season, the pitch had been relaid 10 times at a price of one million pounds and the stadium hadn’t even been in operation for 3 years.

All the same, relaying the playing surface every 3 months is not actually the best solution. The design of the stadium is the reason why the natural conditions of light and wind can’t get to the playing surface to inspire the turf to develop. Some stadia much like the one in Gelsenkirchen in Germany is on rollers so in between games, the full playing surface is transferred outside the arena. Most other stadiums have a good amount of ventilation in the stands permitting the air to move around and it is possible to use artificial lights to aid the grass to develop.

Regrettably, there are still difficulties and an answer needs to be found. In September 2010, England start their qualification for Euro 2012 and they are definitely the top team in their group. The last thing England really don’t need, is their opponents assisted by a poor quality Wembley playing surface. The games at Wembley are intended to give England home advantage.

The UEFA Euro 2012 Championships  will be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The tournament is the last one to be sixteen teams as the subsequent one in 2016 will increase to twenty four teams. Poland and Ukraine defeated Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to hold the competition.

 

The fixtures will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish venues to put on matches will be Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. The Ukrainian venues will be Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.

 

The final will be held in Kiev which will also hold a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after construction will be one of the top stadiums and sporting complexes on the planet. The new venue in Warsaw is also being built and promises to be a state of the art venue.

 

The draw for the finals has already been done and qualifying games will begin just after the 2010 FIFA World Cup. All of the nine group winners and the best runner-up will attain direct entry into the finals. Following that the other eight runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.

 

From Group A you would suspect Germany and Turkey would be too resilient and strong with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.

Group B looks to be a three way competition with Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.

 

In Group C it looks like it will be fairly simple for Italy and Serbia. France is the favorite from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take 2nd.

 

There is a northern European vibe to Group E where it really should be Netherlands and Sweden.

 

Croatia and Greece are the likely challengers with regards to Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.

 

From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and finally from Group I it would seem to be Spain and the Czech Republic.

 

Qualifying finishes in October 2011 by which time excitement and anticipation for the UEFA Euro 2012 tournament will be well and truly underway.