Why do England always lose - except once - at penalty shoot-outs? It's a bit of a mystery.
The Times July 03, 2006
It's the penalty of being English
Simon Barnes
Frank, Stevie and Jamie, the nation loves you for your failure. Unfortunately . . .
AS DAVID BECKHAM no doubt explained to his shattered troops, it is one of Nietzsche’s eternal recurrences. The England football team reach the knockout phase of a big tournament. The English public, a nation of atheists and agnostics, suddenly find themselves true believers. This time — this time — England really will do something special.
Then the penalty shoot-out. A match in which the scores are level after 90 minutes of play and 30 more of extra time is decided by a penalty competition: the best of five penalties each and after that, if the teams are still level, we move into a phase that is called — closer to a literal description than a metaphor — sudden death (the first team that fails to score a penalty loses if the other team then scores).
And England always lose on penalty shoot-outs. Always, always, always. On Saturday, they lost to Portugal on penalties. After a stirring display of force and guts and spirit as England’s ten men played 11 after Wayne Rooney’s sending-off, they went into penalties and collapsed in a soggy heap. England had four penalties and failed with three of them. Failed miserably, squirmingly, embarrassingly, each failing penalty-taker walking to the spot as if foredoomed.
England have been in six penalty shoot-outs since they came into vogue and have lost five of them. They lost to Germany in the World Cup of 1990 and the European Championship Semi-Final of 1996 (at Wembley); they lost to Argentina the same way in 1998 (after Beckham’s sending-off), to Portugal in the European Championship two years ago and again at the World Cup on Saturday. The solitary success was against Spain at the European Championship Quarter Finals of 1996.
The reason for this eternally recurring failure is elusive. And no, it’s not that we are a nation of losers. In mere sporting terms, and confining ourselves to this century, England have Sir Matthew Pinsent and his fourth Olympic gold medal, Dame Kelly Holmes and her unique Olympic double, the Ashes victory of Andrew Flintoff and the cricketers and the rugby union World Cup with Martin Johnson and his immortals. In addition, London had the style and self-belief to win the Olympic Games of 2012.
But if we reject the thesis of England as inevitable losers of anything, we must still accept the idea of England as inevitable losers at penalty shoot-outs. At one stage, it was accepted that England lost at penalties because they didn’t do their homework.
Glenn Hoddle, the England manager at the time of the disaster of 1998, said that there was no point in practising penalties because you couldn’t possibly replicate the situation in practice. By this argument, there is no point in practising anything. Under Sven- Göran Eriksson, the players have practised penalties relentlessly, rigorously, religiously. They have done their research on the habits of goalkeepers under stress, on the favoured techniques and aiming points of the opposition. And still they lose, and on Saturday they lost haplessly.
On Friday I was in Berlin to see Germany play Argentina. That, too, went to penalties. Germany fired in four successive successes: brutal, murderous, unforgiving. Jens Lehmann, the Germany goalkeeper, made two saves and Germany were through. They never looked like failing. Germany and England play a very similar style of football, which seems to argue a very similar temperament. But when it comes to penalties, Germany are implacably brilliant and England are woeful.
Now it is a fact that penalty competitions are unfair. They are melodramatic crap-shoots and they take place because football has sold its birthright for a mess of television money. It’s great telly, but it’s a lottery that mocks at the sincerity of the players. All sport takes place in the theatre of cruelty but the penalty shoot-out, like the bullring, is the theatre of gratuitous cruelty.
It follows, then, that a player who loses is more to be pitied than blamed. That has been demonstrated by a series of Pizza Hut advertisements, in which those who have failed in penalty competitions are treated with a rueful affection. Our hearts go out to those who are brave enough to take a penalty in these horrific circumstances and who are brave enough to fail.
So it’s all right to fail, then. Failure at penalties is perfectly acceptable. And this, I think, is what rots the self-belief of the England players. But I also think that sympathy for the penalty failures is a fine, just and noble sentiment. Certainly, it is a sentiment that the England players are particularly prone to.
A nation that still reveres the story of Scott of the Antarctic and the suicidal Captain Oates will always find a place in its heart for Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, all of whose inadequate penalties were saved on Saturday. The nation that hung Beckham in effigy after his idiotic sending-off in 1998 has nothing but sympathy for the failing trio.
It’s right that this should be so. England does not have a love of losing. Rather, it has an appreciation of gallantry in defeat. We celebrate winners, we also salute gallant failures. I find that a sympathetic trait in a nation. I wouldn’t wish to live in a place in which the failures were put to shame and spitting. But this sympathy-in-advance is what does for England when it comes to the penalty shoot-out.
If the Germans accept that penalties are unfair, they also accept that it’s a task to be mastered. A penalty shoot-out may not be proper football, but it is how many of the very biggest football matches are decided. The mastery of mind and ball on the penalty spot might be said to be the most important skill in the modern game.
But the England footballers can’t do it. Frank, Stevie, Jamie: they have gone for a walk and they may be some time. And we love them for it. Alas.
England's penalty shoout-outs record
World Cup 1990 (Italy)
Semi-Final - West Germany 1-1 England (West Germany win 4-3 on penalties)
---------------------------------------------------
Euro 96 (England)
Quarter Final - Spain 0-0 England (England won 4-2 on penalties, our only success)
----------------------------------------------------
Euro 96 (England)
Semi-Final - England 1-1 Germany (Germany won 6-5 on penalties)
-----------------------------------------------------
World Cup 1998 (France)
Last 16 - Argentina 2-2 England (Argentina won 4-3 on penalties)
-----------------------------------------------------
Euro 2004 (Portugal)
Quarter Final - England 2-2 Portugal (Portugal win 6-5 on penalties)
[[Although England should have won that game 3-2 after extra time as Sol Campbell scored a perfectly legal Golden Goal that was mysteriously disallowed by the Swedish referee. Replays have failed to show why the goal wasn't given. "Golden Goals" means means that the first team to score during the 30 mins of extra time wins the match, and the game ends as soon as the goal is scored. England were robbed.]]
-----------------------------------------------------
World Cup 2006 (Germany)
Quarter Final - England 0-0 Portugal (Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
thetimesonline.co.uk
The Times July 03, 2006
It's the penalty of being English
Simon Barnes
Frank, Stevie and Jamie, the nation loves you for your failure. Unfortunately . . .
AS DAVID BECKHAM no doubt explained to his shattered troops, it is one of Nietzsche’s eternal recurrences. The England football team reach the knockout phase of a big tournament. The English public, a nation of atheists and agnostics, suddenly find themselves true believers. This time — this time — England really will do something special.
Then the penalty shoot-out. A match in which the scores are level after 90 minutes of play and 30 more of extra time is decided by a penalty competition: the best of five penalties each and after that, if the teams are still level, we move into a phase that is called — closer to a literal description than a metaphor — sudden death (the first team that fails to score a penalty loses if the other team then scores).
And England always lose on penalty shoot-outs. Always, always, always. On Saturday, they lost to Portugal on penalties. After a stirring display of force and guts and spirit as England’s ten men played 11 after Wayne Rooney’s sending-off, they went into penalties and collapsed in a soggy heap. England had four penalties and failed with three of them. Failed miserably, squirmingly, embarrassingly, each failing penalty-taker walking to the spot as if foredoomed.
England have been in six penalty shoot-outs since they came into vogue and have lost five of them. They lost to Germany in the World Cup of 1990 and the European Championship Semi-Final of 1996 (at Wembley); they lost to Argentina the same way in 1998 (after Beckham’s sending-off), to Portugal in the European Championship two years ago and again at the World Cup on Saturday. The solitary success was against Spain at the European Championship Quarter Finals of 1996.
The reason for this eternally recurring failure is elusive. And no, it’s not that we are a nation of losers. In mere sporting terms, and confining ourselves to this century, England have Sir Matthew Pinsent and his fourth Olympic gold medal, Dame Kelly Holmes and her unique Olympic double, the Ashes victory of Andrew Flintoff and the cricketers and the rugby union World Cup with Martin Johnson and his immortals. In addition, London had the style and self-belief to win the Olympic Games of 2012.
But if we reject the thesis of England as inevitable losers of anything, we must still accept the idea of England as inevitable losers at penalty shoot-outs. At one stage, it was accepted that England lost at penalties because they didn’t do their homework.
Glenn Hoddle, the England manager at the time of the disaster of 1998, said that there was no point in practising penalties because you couldn’t possibly replicate the situation in practice. By this argument, there is no point in practising anything. Under Sven- Göran Eriksson, the players have practised penalties relentlessly, rigorously, religiously. They have done their research on the habits of goalkeepers under stress, on the favoured techniques and aiming points of the opposition. And still they lose, and on Saturday they lost haplessly.
On Friday I was in Berlin to see Germany play Argentina. That, too, went to penalties. Germany fired in four successive successes: brutal, murderous, unforgiving. Jens Lehmann, the Germany goalkeeper, made two saves and Germany were through. They never looked like failing. Germany and England play a very similar style of football, which seems to argue a very similar temperament. But when it comes to penalties, Germany are implacably brilliant and England are woeful.
Now it is a fact that penalty competitions are unfair. They are melodramatic crap-shoots and they take place because football has sold its birthright for a mess of television money. It’s great telly, but it’s a lottery that mocks at the sincerity of the players. All sport takes place in the theatre of cruelty but the penalty shoot-out, like the bullring, is the theatre of gratuitous cruelty.
It follows, then, that a player who loses is more to be pitied than blamed. That has been demonstrated by a series of Pizza Hut advertisements, in which those who have failed in penalty competitions are treated with a rueful affection. Our hearts go out to those who are brave enough to take a penalty in these horrific circumstances and who are brave enough to fail.
So it’s all right to fail, then. Failure at penalties is perfectly acceptable. And this, I think, is what rots the self-belief of the England players. But I also think that sympathy for the penalty failures is a fine, just and noble sentiment. Certainly, it is a sentiment that the England players are particularly prone to.
A nation that still reveres the story of Scott of the Antarctic and the suicidal Captain Oates will always find a place in its heart for Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, all of whose inadequate penalties were saved on Saturday. The nation that hung Beckham in effigy after his idiotic sending-off in 1998 has nothing but sympathy for the failing trio.
It’s right that this should be so. England does not have a love of losing. Rather, it has an appreciation of gallantry in defeat. We celebrate winners, we also salute gallant failures. I find that a sympathetic trait in a nation. I wouldn’t wish to live in a place in which the failures were put to shame and spitting. But this sympathy-in-advance is what does for England when it comes to the penalty shoot-out.
If the Germans accept that penalties are unfair, they also accept that it’s a task to be mastered. A penalty shoot-out may not be proper football, but it is how many of the very biggest football matches are decided. The mastery of mind and ball on the penalty spot might be said to be the most important skill in the modern game.
But the England footballers can’t do it. Frank, Stevie, Jamie: they have gone for a walk and they may be some time. And we love them for it. Alas.
England's penalty shoout-outs record
World Cup 1990 (Italy)
Semi-Final - West Germany 1-1 England (West Germany win 4-3 on penalties)
---------------------------------------------------
Euro 96 (England)
Quarter Final - Spain 0-0 England (England won 4-2 on penalties, our only success)
----------------------------------------------------
Euro 96 (England)
Semi-Final - England 1-1 Germany (Germany won 6-5 on penalties)
-----------------------------------------------------
World Cup 1998 (France)
Last 16 - Argentina 2-2 England (Argentina won 4-3 on penalties)
-----------------------------------------------------
Euro 2004 (Portugal)
Quarter Final - England 2-2 Portugal (Portugal win 6-5 on penalties)
[[Although England should have won that game 3-2 after extra time as Sol Campbell scored a perfectly legal Golden Goal that was mysteriously disallowed by the Swedish referee. Replays have failed to show why the goal wasn't given. "Golden Goals" means means that the first team to score during the 30 mins of extra time wins the match, and the game ends as soon as the goal is scored. England were robbed.]]
-----------------------------------------------------
World Cup 2006 (Germany)
Quarter Final - England 0-0 Portugal (Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
thetimesonline.co.uk
