Euro 2012: England Pay The Penalty... Again!

I recently heard FIFA President Sepp Blatter talk about doing away with penalty shootouts at the end of games because he felt that it detracted from the team image of the game and turned it into more of an individual sport. He had decided to put together a think tank to come up with alternative ways to end a deadlocked game of football. Normally when Sepp Blatter comes out with something one of the first nations to rail against him is England but somehow I just don't see the FA racing to the front of this line. Nine times in major tournaments England have gone to penalties and eight times they have been found wanting. Their sole success being the redemption of Stuart Pearce at Euro '96 against Spain. England managers have tried practising penalties and not practising penalties. They have tried using sports psychologists and not using sports psychologists. They have tried having a select set of penalty takers and just letting whomever felt confident on the night but nothing seems to work. Perhaps it's time for a new method of thinking. Winning the game before it gets to penalties! Before I hear you cry "it's not that simple" and as I write this I am fully aware of my post from the day of the game but when you have a record of one win and eight losses and you have tried everything else perhaps it's time to look at alternatives. Winning the game by scoring more goals than your opponent in the allotted time is perhaps top of that list. Roy Hodgson had set his team up to play defensively all tournament. Solid at the back, strong in midfield and play on the break. That is only going to create you one or two good chances a game and that isn't enough against the stronger teams. To be fair to Hodgson it's not entirely his fault because we simply don't have the top class players in Britain. If you take Wales, Scotland both the Irelands and England none of us have a midfield metronome, a talismanic winger or a goalscorer extraordinaire. What we as fans expect from our football games are completely different from that of the German's or Spanish. Before a Spain game in the group stages on ITV Adrian Chiles was filing time in his usual dull way when he turned to Roberto Martinez and actually asked a pertinent question for once. "Do the Spanish fans get nervous when the national team keep passing the ball around without seemingly creating anything?". "No!" was the immediate reply from the Wigan manager. The fans on the continent know that their team play their way and they have one crucial element that we over here don't have... patience. If you watch any one of the semi finalists you will notice they all play the game at their own speed. They are happy to play the five yard give and go's. Their midfielder's are happy to come deep and exchange passes with their defensive colleagues knowing that while they have the ball they control the game. Controlling the game offers all kinds of benefits. It's physically and mentally more tiring chasing the ball. It allows your team mates to rest while you are exchanging short passes at the back. It draws your opponents onto you thus making space for your attackers. You can lull your opponents into a false sense of security for a sudden change of tempo. It allows you gradually build your way up the park and condense the game into your opponents final third. It drives the other team back so if they do win the ball from you they have no one up front to pass to and you can then win the ball back quickly and start your attack again. To change our national teams would take years at the grass root level but we would also have to change our culture and our attitude towards football. When it wasn't going England's way on Sunday and the embodiment of elegance Andrea Pirlo was running the show England reverted to type by throwing on Andy Carroll. Say what you want about the man in International football he is from a long gone era. A big lump up front who might shake up the other teams defence because you know Johnny Foreigner doesn't like it up 'em. Those days are gone because Italy and Germany et al have seen it all before and know how to deal with it. Get bodies around him and pick up the second ball. They worked out that if the ball is in the air you can't win the game. For the first ten minutes or so England stood up to the Azzuri and managed to get in behind them a couple of times. They did it against Sweden as well and that is where British teams come into our own. When we shake up our more cultured opponents by turning it into a basketball game. Stretch the game with a constant streams of we attack, you attack. We are after all hell for leather nations. Once more into the breach nations. You can't do it for 90 minutes but you can do it for concerted spells to shake them out of their rhythm. If you don't you end up watching Andrea Pirlo calmly and delightfully chip a penalty down the middle while your guys hit the crossbar. Like the song said at the end of the BBC coverage; "I tried so hard and got so far but in the end it doesn't even matter"