Fans in hope of glory

Greg Baum
June 17, 2006

England's progression to the round of 16 has been earned by a team not as strong as some Premier League sides

THE more things change for England, the more it still gets into corners and scrapes. The English descended yesterday on Nuremberg, for a game against Trinidad and Tobago, a scheduling perversity since the Franken Stadium holds barely 42,000. Soon, the historic heart of the city was overrun by bare-bellied, bare-chested, bare-arsed louts, swilling beer from plastic steins, chanting hoarsely and burning slowly in the 30-degree sun.

Three hours before the match, the old city looked like a rubbish dump and sounded like a London pub at midnight. There was a discomfiting sense that a wrong word or look would lead to a riot; this was the sort of war that did not bear mentioning. The day was saved by a massive security presence — including an imported flying squad of bobbies in their distinctive helmets — and doubtless by the fact that England won.

But that, too, was a near thing. England is a team of millionaire superstars from mega-clubs. Trinidad and Tobago's team comes from Gillingham, Wrexham, Falkirk, Sydney and the New England Revolution, to name some. It has one white player, whose parents are English and who grew up in Staffordshire, but whose mother happened to be born in Port of Spain.

"Every coach is driving on the same road," said coach Leo Beenhakker, "but we are all driving different cars." Besides, Trinidad and Tobago's history is one of colonisation by and assimilation of many influences.

Trinidad and Tobago, population 1.1 million, is the smallest country ever to make the World Cup finals. Its price was 750-1 when the draw was made, longer than the other newcomers, Angola, Ghana and Togo. It arrived in Germany not with louts and provocateurs, but with a steel band and a troupe of costumed actors who yesterday paraded through the old city on floats, Moomba-style. It was problematic then which was a first-world country and which was third.

But Trinidad and Tobago has produced against the odds, many times: cricketers, for instance, musicians and writers. Some have had to double up. The first black secretary of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association and the man who set the country on this path was Evan James, brother of the writer C.L.R. James.

Trinidad and Tobago's campaign had begun with a heroic 0-0 draw with Sweden. England's unconvincing opening sally had been a 1-0 win over Paraguay. Beenhakker figured that if his team could keep England out for the first 20 minutes, it would lose its shape and its cool. It had worked against Sweden, and did again now.

When England did make chances, it blew them, Michael Owen, Frank Lampard and all missing open goals. Trinidad and Tobago, by picking its moment, forced John Terry into a desperate goal-line clearance. There was sweat on all brows, and it was not just the humidity.

After half an hour, the English crowd's repertoire had been fined down to a single, plaintive call for convalescent Wayne Rooney. After an hour, their wish was granted, probably earlier than coach Sven-Goran Eriksson planned, but not a moment too soon for this match. With him came Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon. Immediately, they gave England a livelier and likelier look.

Nonetheless, it took until the last bite of the last fingernail and the 83rd minute for the breakthrough. Lennon played the ball back to David Beckham, whose educated cross found 198-centimetre Peter Crouch for an unstoppable header. Steven Gerrard made it two with a classic left-foot drive in injury time. Trinidad and Tobago, though shattered, played out the match and scored an injury-time goal, only for it to be disallowed for offside.

The crowd sang, but Rooney personified England's sentiment by scurrying for the dressing rooms with barely an acknowledgement. Beckham's few moments of creativity were enough to win him the man-of-the-match award.

The coaches saw the game through different windscreens. Beenhakker said England had been too impatient, bypassing its talented midfield to try to get the ball to Crouch. Eriksson said he was pleased that England had the patience to break down Trinidad and Tobago's well-marshalled and resolute defence. "At the end of the day, we won," he said.

But England was scarcely inspiring. Eriksson's perseverance with four at the back when Trinidad and Tobago showed no intention of attacking except by fast break was timid. In a tournament whose hallmark already is the pace of the Africans, South Americans and even Germans, England's progress up the pitch was plodding and to Beenhakker's mind, easy to predict. Against better teams than Trinidad and Tobago, England would need to be more tricks, he said.

Money, the establishment of the Premier League and the influx of foreign players supposedly has civilised and improved English football. Yesterday, both propositions were doubtful. England now is not as good as some English club teams. It is a puzzling notion.

England will finish top of its group, but might have to play Germany in the round of 16, awakening more demons, for England and for civil authorities. On the evidence of this tournament, Germany has shed its past as England would like to do, re-emerging as a team of almost carefree attacking flair. This will prove especially jarring to English sensibilities.

"We'd still prefer to be bombing the Germans, but after 60 years, there's a slowly dawning suspicion that those days aren't coming back anytime soon, and that in the meantime, we must rely on sarong-wearing multi-millionaire pretty boys to kick the Argies for us," writes Nick Hornby, of Fever Pitch fame. "We're not happy about it, but what can we do?"

The answer is the same as for every other question about English football: put Rooney on.