Same old England

Sat at my computer until half time last night, I was slating England's performance left right and centre. From what I saw, every time I glanced at my television was a moment that made me want to sigh in disbelief. How we managed to go in at half time at 2-0 was a miracle.

There was no motivation in the each team member's face, no commitment to the cause. We have another team of individuals, like we had under Sven, some of the best in the world at club level, but in national competition we don't blend enough to get beyond the quarter finals, and although this isn't the world cup, and we have another ten months to prepare, I don't feel like we have a realistic chance of winning the competition, like I did in 2006.

It's only the naivest of supporters that continually play up our chances on the verge of the competition. I consider myself an optimist, yes, but not naive. I see the semi-finals as a realistic target, I just hope that too much hype which has turned into expectation over the years, hasn't cost us a tournament triumph.

At the moment it doesn't look like it will. In fact based on the first half of last night's performance if anything the people in the media will play down there chances. Yes, Holland are probably Quarter-Final quality, but they were far from their total footballing best and we should have capitalised, not thrown two goals away like we did.

I was always of the belief we had the best centre back pairing in international football. But Terry, or Ferdinand, looked comfortable in their own ability. Ashley Young and Gareth Barry spent the first half being unnoticeable, and Frank Lampard had another below par, performance for his national side. Emile Heskey may have presence in the England front two, but what his strengths are, Peter Crouch has but better. Heskey has done nothing at Aston Villa since his arrival in January, and should not have started based on a prior England result.

The second half brought about change. The team-talk was clearly impressive and the substitutions were inspired. Defoe came on, and within 3 minutes made an impact. He scored twice, leaving the fans in joy, perhaps Michael Owen isn't the best natural finisher we have?

The second half, in that respect showed plenty of promise. Based on the second half performance, I would say that if we draw the Dutch we can feel confident in ourselves that we can beat them. But the annoying factor for me is, before kick-off Capello said he wanted a '90 minutes' team, he got a 45 minutes team and we've taken several steps back.