Five media moans about England's draw
Yes, Montenegro is a small country, with a population of only 670,000, however they're a tiny nation with a very good football team that had beaten each of the three other sides in Group G without conceding a goal, and has lost just three competitive matches in their short existence.
In addition, as Betting.Betfair contributor Jonathan Wilson pointed out this week, their coach Zlatko "Niko's dad" Kranjcar has never been beaten in 13 qualifiers as an international boss. So our take is that a goalless draw against them, while not ideal for England, is no disaster and actually makes an otherwise dull qualifying group fairly exciting. These snippets suggest the press have other ideas...
"The great England revival ground to an embarrassed halt last night in a goalless draw against a side currently ranked below Gabon and Burkina Faso." - Richard Williams, The Guardian
Ah, the FIFA world rankings. Derided as meaningless most of the time, then quoted as if concrete evidence when used to suit an argument.
"Fabio Capello needs to go to Specsavers and quick because the delusional England boss actually thinks his boys played well last night." - Rob Beasley, The Sun
Capello's actual comment was "we created four or five clear chances to score goals, but we missed them", which is hardly a lie.
"Once again, the ones you felt sorry for were the diehard England supporters who descended on the national stadium. We may criticise the team but these fans are something else. Even after South Africa, they keep turning up to cheer on players who have let them down time and again." - Steven Howard, The Sun
England had won 11 straight home games, so the home fans had hardly suffered of late. Equally, our view is that it's more helpful to have 5,000 fans who turn up to support the team than 73,000 to jeer.
"Capello might bleat about the penalty that probably should have been awarded when Milan Jovanovic needlessly used his left bicep to control the ball but that would amount to a pretty weak excuse." - Matt Lawton, The Daily Mail
So if the journalist concedes that it was probably a penalty then why is it a weak excuse and bleating?
"Capello reverted to Rio Ferdinand as captain, a decision which clearly affected the dethroned Steven Gerrard. Gone was the swashbuckling skipper who had led England from the dark days of the World Cup. He played last night from the centre circle, while there was no leadership from Ferdinand." - Brian Woolnough, The Daily Star
The criticism of Ferdinand is harsh given that colleague David Woods rated him England's best player, while it's hard to see how it's Capello's fault if Gerrard choses, as is insinuated, to sulk.
Do you agree with the reaction to the goalless draw? Have your say below...
Published: 13 Oct 2010
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