England's 10 Most Devastating World Cup Exits

3. Qualifying Stage - 1994

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjU_z4ybSOg As much as the England national side can pull at your heart-strings, the idea of watching a World Cup that doesn't feature The Three Lions is unthinkable to a newer generation of supporters. Well, 1994 was far from a cake-walk €“ fans were made to sit at home and endure the likes of South Korea versus Bolivia in a painfully dull and uncreative 0-0 draw, while coming to terms with the fact that this was a tournament England were seemingly not good enough to enter. With exactly half of England€™s qualifying games being made up of draws and losses, Graham Taylor€™s side finished the group in third place, behind both Norway and Holland, subsequently ensuring a boring summer. A fascinating factor of this particular qualifying campaign is that a Channel 4 film crew were given access to record Graham Taylor and his team at their most vulnerable. The documentary is entitled €˜The Impossible Job€™ and makes for a very interesting watch. In a recent interview with the BBC, Taylor reflected on the backlash created by the whole episode: "I didn't ever expect that we wouldn't qualify, I was arrogant enough to think that. So I was keen to show the problems of being England manager. Then, as the results went on and we didn't qualify, I became more central to the documentary, quite rightly.€
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Contributor

A wrestling enthusiast, currently educating the youth of Taiwan English; there are now a bunch of Asian kids running around with Yorkshire accents. Read about that trip and others at dragonstravel.com.