lost that loving feeling - Final thoughts

It's a week since England's chances of World Cup glory vanished and in two days time another chapter in international football history will be written. But to tell the truth, my interest in this tournament has dwindled somewhat since last Friday.

This is mainly because of England's exit, but part of my enthusiasm has been dented due to the lack of quality teams who made it into the last four.

At the start, it was great to see the big boys struggling and so many minnows of world football doing well. But when it comes to semi-finals featuring Turkey and South Korea, it is hard to convince yourself that this is actually the biggest stage in football.

Even the finalists, Brazil and Germany, are currently fielding their weakest sides for years. Fair play to them for getting this far, but personally I'd much rather see France and Argentina battling it out on Sunday.

Of course, France and Argentina have only got themselves to blame for not being there, having both arrived to the finals with disgraceful arrogance. But teams like Portugal, Italy and Spain have all been the victims of poor refereeing, and all against a certain host nation.

I wouldn't suggest that there was any degree of match-fixing going on, but it is sad that poor marshalling of games has cost the tournament three teams capable of producing quality football the final needs.

Despite this being a historical match between two of the World Cup's regular finalists, I hold little hope for this final being a classic battle. Germany have barely been tested throughout this competition and reached the final with a fortunate combination of negative play and good luck.

Brazil have also paved the way to the final with little quality opposition. The game against England was their only real test and in all fairness, they did play very well in that game. Whether this was due to England playing poorly, or because the Brazilians did what they had to do to stop us playing, is not easy to say, but Brazil must be confident that having beat England, the Germans will pose few questions of the side.

Over all though, it has been a very positive World Cup. New nations have arrived on the world football scene and caused quite a stir. Outsiders such as the USA, Senegal and Japan have made sure that this was indeed a 'World' Cup, rather than the usual Europe v South America affair.

It can only be encouraging that new sources of talent are now being enriched thanks to new training techniques being imported from Europe and that one of football's most valuable future markets has been given a taster of the big time.

Whether or not Asian and African teams will be able to make the same impact on Germany 2006 is in doubt though. It is well known fact that if you take soldiers out of their natural environment, they will lose the war. It seems to me that many of the usual suspects of World Cups suffered because of the hostile conditions of the Far East. Only the Germans - typically efficient in the face of adversity - and the Brazilians - no doubt used to playing in blistering heat at home - have been able to cope.

But there's no point in moaning that this was unfair as that is the whole point of moving the World Cup to a different location every four years. European teams will no doubt prosper in Germany 2006 as they did in France 98.

In terms of England, it has been a very exciting World Cup from which we can draw many more positives than negatives.

Personally, I was gutted last Friday morning. Not because of the poor performance, but because I was utterly convinced that England would go all the way this time. It was certainly a great chance, and to be denied by one of the luckiest goals ever scored in a World Cup was enough to bring me to tears.

David Seaman has my greatest sympathy as he could have done nothing to stop Ronaldinho's fluke goal. He was in the correct position and could have no way of anticipating such a bizarre goal.

But lucky as they may have been, credit must go to the Brazilians for an excellent performance. Their first goal was worthy of any stage, showing that not only are they capable of individual brilliance, but they can work as a team to tear opponents apart.

Once they were in the lead, they defended well and it was hard to see England ever breaking them down. You could say that England didn't put enough effort into their attacks when chasing the game, but the harsh conditions and the manner of going behind seemed to have drained their spirit.

It also shattered the game plan which, in the first half, had worked perfectly for Sven - sit back and let the Brazilians give us all they've got, hitting them on the break when the give us a chance.

Given the performance of England's defenders this summer, and the obvious frailty of Brazil's, this was a perfectly reasonable plan, but the players just couldn't adjust it when they went behind.

I was gutted, but now I am upbeat again. Few expected England to progress to the quarter-finals; some even doubted our chances of getting past the group stage. And to go out to the (probable) eventually winners is nothing to be ashamed of.

It is perhaps frustrating to know that despite only reaching the quarter-finals, England were extremely close to bringing back the gold. If they had not met the Brazilians until later in the tournament, they would probably have remained unbeaten (providing they didn't fall foul of the Koreans and their linesmen). But then again, the higher you climb, the harder you fall, so perhaps it was best not to submit this passionate nation to a semi-final or final defeat.

Considering the injuries the side suffered beforehand, reaching the quarters was an outstanding achievement, even more so when you consider the hard work of Sven in restoring hope and belief after Keegan's disastrous reign.

Young players like Ashley Cole, Danny Mills and Owen Hargreaves have gained invaluable experience which will be vital for Germany 2006. David Beckham will no doubt still be captain and hopefully Sven will still be manager. Maybe Seaman will still be number one? Who knows?

Looking back at this World Cup I will remember the way the nation got behind the team and pride was restored to English football, rather than for any classic matches.

But there will also be the nagging feeling that this was the best chance England will ever have of being world champions again. The thought of never seeing England win a World Cup in my lifetime is just slightly soul-destroying.