The crunch stages of the tournament arrived last Saturday, then England's big day arrived with few of us anticipating disaster on such a scale!

The USA were knocked out 2-1 by Ghana and South Korea lost to Uruguay by the same score on Saturday. On Sunday, England took the big stage to face Germany. 

Could we make the quarter finals? Well, we all know the answer to that one.

You might agree with some or all of the following rant – so tell us YOUR opinions!

England’s World Cup campaign unravelled as soon as they met good quality opposition. There was atrocious defending, some diabolical refereeing in the most crucial decision of this World Cup so far - and the young, less experienced German side proved superior to England in every department, except perhaps goalkeeping - and those fantastic, long-suffering travelling England supporters’ clubs!

The expensive Mr Capello and his trusty entourage were found wanting in every game if truth be known - and were especially found out against the Germans. Tactics, team selection, motivation, organisation, substitutions....it’s difficult to know where to start - the mind-numbing analysis will occupy Fleet Street ad infinitum, so I’ll just air my personal thoughts and observations.

“Dizzy in the head and feelin’ bad, things you said have got me real mad’....that snippet of The Who’s lyric from “I Can’t Explain” could - should have been applied by our players in response to Beckenbauer’s disparaging comments about England, motivating our boys to prove him wrong. Unfortunately, he was right!

Well it never happened. We didn’t feed off the anger in response, or the heritage of past World Cup glory, or the sadness of more recent disappointments; we didn’t get started, were 0-2 down, and after the break, the game was soon well beyond us.

The irony was that the German’s first goal was as Route One as you can get, the dreadful English defence allowing an 80-yard goal kick to be collected and steered home. It was ‘stupid’ defending from England, and alehouse attacking from Germany, as even Franz might concede - but we simply couldn’t handle it.

The sight of Terry and Upson scuttling back wildly after we lost the ball yards from the German goal, to be split asunder for the other German goals through the most amateur defending imaginable left an open-mouthed watching nation speechless.

Matthew Upson’s headed goal was superb, superhuman - and impossibly, it seemed for a spell that we could recover from 1-2, but were undone by a refereeing decision as cruel and erroneous as Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal. Lampard’s brilliant “ghost” strike only moments after Upson’s goal robbed England of parity. It would have been a route back from where England could regroup and battle out a more even contest.

However, they folded like a pack of cards in the second half; total defensive disintegration was the main reason we were thrashed. Blatter & Co can apologise and say that the ‘ghost goal’ was all very unfortunate - but it was a decisive moment in the game. England conceded four goals though - and we can’t hide away with excuses about a truly abject performance.

Defensively, we were a shambles; elsewhere - no pace, power or thrust. No goals from Rooney. No goals from Lampard (well OK, his luck was out, you could say). No goals from Heskey; Crouch criminally disregarded. Only three goals scored in four matches, with three of those matches against allegedly inferior opposition.

The dream was over before it really started for England; the Rio Ferdinand setback; the failed gamble of risking of Ledley King; the debacle of Robert Green’s gaffe and the goalkeeping debate. Rooney and Gerrard played in unfavoured positions - the former a Golden Boot contender; the latter trying to drive midfield from the left wing.

Gareth Barry was short of fitness; defenders were strangers when it mattered most. Lennon, Defoe and Wright-Phillips flattered to deceive; we saw two poor performances and a passable one in the group stages, then total humiliation - most horribly against the old adversary, Germany - when the pressure was really on!

When a performance was required, nothing was delivered, such a miserable return for all the promise, bluster and bull. Where were the power, persistence and passion of the renowned ‘English game?’ Search me!

Mr Capello couldn’t explain the debacle either, looking bemused and hesitant afterwards and almost lost for words in the post-match press conference. He may now face the same fate as several of his under-achieving predecessors and will meet soon with the FA. The signs point towards continuity, however.

He was also at pains to underline the fact that he turned down offers from various big clubs to sign his newly-enhanced England contract. The FA will want to avoid an expensive case of déjà vu, after Eriksson walked away with a fortune and McLaren went packing with a handy pay-off.

Now there’s only the media backlash to endure, no celebrations - then there will be the inquests and fallout at the top of the game’s hierarchy as a result of the whole disjointed shambles. It’s the end of the game, English football must change.

Quite why the FA clamoured for Fabio’s fresh signature right before the tournament needs to be explained, too - and such hasty decisions outlawed in future.

For many reasons though, we are not good enough at world level and these highly rewarded and successful club players (our ‘Golden Generation?’) cannot cut it at the top level - or they just don’t have the motivation to get out of their comfort zone and pull on the Three Lions’ jersey to perform with pride and passion.

Super-rich players are insulated from the public fervour and can always retreat to their virtual reality lifestyle.  The lost opportunity and revenue for thousands of different retailers of World Cup-related merchandise must be vast.

That business gap, and the crash-dive in food and drink turnover takings at pubs and venues screening games and other spin-offs nationwide (quite apart from the deflation and disillusionment of the fans) doesn’t  really impinge on player’s lives.

Is tiredness an adequate explanation? No; numerous players starring for other countries in the tournament were involved in the climax to the Champions League. Our players had been acclimatising in the lap of luxury for over a month! Yes - the Premier League is an arduous campaign but in my opinion, even if the EPL took a month off for a winter break, it would not lead to a significant improvement.

That wouldn’t mask the truth; there’s a dearth of world-class home grown players. Our top clubs rely on imported stars to secure success at any price. Perhaps the elite clubs still busy themselves during their winter ‘break’ nipping off to the Far East or America or wherever for some lucrative ‘exhibition’ matches to shore up their coffers (sorry, or offset their vast debts!) We could give them all a ‘bye’ until the last 16 of the F A Cup, that might help....

Youth development in England has lagged behind. The FA procrastinated for over a decade in postponing, reviewing, and finally authorising the Centre of Excellence at Burton-on-Trent. They were too busy on a gross overspend, rebuilding Wembley.

In a typically English manner, the different football authorities - the English Premier League, the Football League and the Football Association pursue their own goals (especially money, television rights and glamour, in the ‘Greedy League’).

It is a fragmented, sectional structure without integration and many conflicts of interest. The creation of a successful national team and a prodigious youth system seem forlorn hopes. Club versus country is regularly discussed, but then dismissed.

We must mirror what countries like France, Italy and Holland achieved through superior ‘grass roots’ development - it should have been the central plank of English football strategy many years ago. Yes, two of those countries are rebuilding - but have had success.

Quite what our celebrated Technical Development Director Trevor Brooking delivers in return for his high-status position escapes me. Can anyone enlighten me? He appears to me as a cringing apologist and a fence-sitter, in an organisation where reformers are unwelcome, or soon become disillusioned and abandon ship.

Lo and behold, the goal-line technology debate is suddenly far from dead. Blatter’s apology is as inadequate as his thinking on the matter. Never mind “I can’t Explain” - Blatter & Co must revise the policy ASAP. However, our bitter taste from that turning point is that England can’t assert that the technology controversy was critical.

Regardless of injustice, the England performance was so unutterably bad that the only thing that sprang to my mind immediately is that I’d seen so many mediocre (and some diabolical) performances from the Rams in the past three seasons, that I’ve acquired a resigned acceptance of such disaster; I’ve become habituated to it.

That’s not having a cheap go at DCFC necessarily - I just recognised the sinking disappointment from the regularity of mediocrity-as-entertainment at Pride Park Stadium. So, I was better able to displace it and get on with life .Football after all isn’t crucial, it’s part-illusion, part-disillusion, it’s only a small shard of real life.

I watched the Argentina vs. Mexico tie on Sunday evening with limited enthusiasm, even though it was a pleasure to see TWO teams displaying their skills and giving everything for their nations.

Mexico were undone by an atrocious refereeing decision (but everything’s alright in that quarter - right, Mr Blatter?) and a couple of moments of madness from their defenders. Argentina triumphed 3-1 and some brilliant goals were scored; the stocky, squat Jekyll-and Hyde-figure of Diego Maradona celebrated victory as extravagantly as England had dejectedly trudged off their pitch. Will Germany stifle Diego’s joy?

Well, it will be ‘48 years of hurt’ next time around. Crikey, it’s already 18 years since that heartfelt Lightning Seeds’ rallying call! By 2014, who knows who might be leading England on the pitch and on the training ground?

Will better players emerge from the ruins of Bloemfontein to make us believe again and carry the spirit of Moore, Hurst, Peters and all those other heroes of past times who swelled our national pride? We have had a very big reality check, FA take note.

Football has the capacity to exhilarate us and deflate us in equal measure, almost minute by minute; it is thrilling and cruel by turns. We want our best players to express themselves and do the nation proud just as we affirm our identity with our local team and want to believe we can succeed and match - even defeat the best.

I turned TV channels over for the exuberant, pulsating splendour of the Glastonbury Festival coverage on the BBC and in comparison to the football (especially the English variety), the music had the capacity to re-energise, to lift the spirits.

The spectacle of the awesome Stevie Wonder surrounded by his incredible musicians and that fantastic 100,000-plus crowd led me back to contentment; it was a great sight to behold! The sound of Stevie embodies the soul within us all; he is a force of nature, a musical immortal. It was a sprawling celebration of 40 years of the greatest music festival on earth.

Steveland Morris has been making great music for even longer than Glastonbury has existed, and well before England won the World Cup!

His inspirational message of music, togetherness, tolerance and peace reminded me that there’s much more to life than football.

What it must have been like to be stage front at that superlative performance, as opposed to be enduring that ramshackle England display. There was a man, there was a band!

Football usually comes a poor second to such performances for entertainment value, unless you watch other teams and countries in action. But we’re fatefully addicted, and we’ll go back for more! There’s always one more time....

Photo: Action Images

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