There are those confusing Colombia’s unwillingness to want to play football against us in Tuesday’s ill-tempered Last 16 clash, with England’s inability — don’t.
We know our limitations, you don’t need to remind us. Part of our charm is that we’ve got this far, and if you can’t appreciate the very English irony of it all, please don’t ruin it, just let us enjoy this moment.
To us it’s like a Leicester City-style charge for the Premier League title, except that even Leicester did it more convincingly.
Now, in a less hostile game, where the opposition actually wants to play football, we will surely play more to our potential and maybe win over a few of the haters.
This is what we have to prove now against Sweden in Saturday’s quarter-final — that we deserve to be in that last eight, let alone the last four.
Yes, we’ve only beaten Tunisia and Panama and lost against the reserves of the one decent side we’ve played against (Belgium). Colombia was scrappy and we rode our luck a bit, but overall we deserved to win, and finally a shootout actually went our way.
We are well aware that there will now be some quarters baying against us, but that’s OK.
‘Flawed, but in the right way,’ is the best way I’ve heard this England team described.
They are not riding on names and reputation like the last generation, who despite incredible talent (look at that squad of 2002 and 2006) couldn’t get past the quarters. Part of the irony I was talking about above is that we’ve now got to the same stage of a World Cup with a rag-tag and bobtail type team — and that appeals to the English mentality.
These youngsters look more like the kids next door than their untouchable predecessors who were worshipped without reason. Led by a man who was the ridicule of the nineties for missing a penalty at Euro ‘96, there’s something relatable about them. They are honest, trying, and speak to the rest of us who fail but keep going.
We are the tiny island who wrongly colonised half the world, but that’s our history and we unfortunately can’t change it.
We defended ourselves from aggressors against all odds, and now opt to alienate ourselves from the rest of Europe.
We may be stubborn, arrogant and too proud to see reason sometimes. We know we are no longer great, whatever that meant, but this team reminds us of what it is that makes us what we are.
As a country, we have always been underdogs, punching well above our weight. Some may think we should be doing better given our history, but the truth is we know those days are gone.
This team however, is giving us some reason to believe in what we still can be as a nation, despite being faced with a highly uncertain future.
What’s worrying about England is that they can’t defend a lead and sit back after scoring, then they flap about with suicidal back passes. We are always seconds away from disaster with Kyle Walker. Raheem Sterling needs to move to the wing, but while Kieran Trippier is doing so well in that position, there’s almost no place for him. So maybe instead start with Marcus Rashford up front with Harry Kane.
We may lose to Sweden and finally get what many think was long due coming to us, but if you had said at the start of the tournament that we would reach the quarters we would have taken it. What’s good is that the belief is back, Gareth Southgate has buried his demons, and the future is not nearly as grim.
