England have competed in 13 championships in my lifetime. Our opening fixture record reads as follows: Wins - 3, Draws - 6, Defeats - 4. A win percentage of 23% - a poor figure for a supposedly top football nation. What is it about England that makes them fail this test time and again?
In a word - fear. How else can you explain players like Lampard and Lennon playing like shadows of the performers we see for their clubs? It's like they've been replaced with an Invasion of the Bodysnatchers style replica. One of my Talksport colleagues who went to the Royal Bafokeng Stadium said he thought they looked nervous before the game, as if they could already see the headlines should they fail to beat the US (although quite why Robert Green decided to make it easier, Lord only knows). For this Capello and staff must take some of the blame.
