Yesterday was a momentous day for English sport as its national cricket and football sides played its greatest foes in Australia and Germany respectively. The two matches produced degrees of emotion at both ends of the scale.
The good (just)
After an English batting collapse reminiscent of the bad old days of the 1990's, Tim Bresnan held his nerve to secure an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five match Nat West series with Australia. For the third match in a row, England fought back after Australia had taken the early initiative and were coasting to their victory target of 213 at 185 for three with 50 balls to go. Then the cricket side performed like its footballing counterpart and the defences parted like the Red Sea to let Australia in. But this team of Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower is different and despite losing six wickets for 18 they still somehow managed to cross the finishing line. We've written before how in the matter of nine months, the England one day side has turned from a rabble into a side with a genuine chance of doing well in next year's World Cup. All the players have stuck their hands up during this renaissance, with the plaudits yesterday going to Graeme Swann and James Anderson with the ball and captain Strauss with the bat. Can we now hope for 5-0?
The bad
If the England batting collapse was bad, then the England football team's performance against Germany was downright shocking. The media will doubtless point to Lampard's disallowed goal (see The ugly) and heap blame on manager Fabio Capello, but in truth the fault lies almost entirely with the players. To say they didn't look up for it is like saying that Neville Chamberlain wasn't up for a punch up with Adolf Hitler in 1938 - hence the shameful Munich Treaty. The defending was shocking and if it hadn't been for David James then Germany could have had eight or nine. In thirty years of watching England, this was the worst I have seen them play in a competitive match - even worse than against Algeria. Whilst Capello must take some of the blame, he was badly let down by his players especially the woefully out of form Rooney and the mutinous Terry. The World Cup will be a better place without the whinging primadonnas playing under the flag of St George.
The ugly
There was a lot of ugly things on show in Bloemfontein yesterday - seven of them were in England shirts (at least Lampard, James, Gerrard and Ashley Cole looked like they cared and gave a reasonable performance). But perhaps the ugliest incident was Lampard's disallowed goal. It shouldn't detract from England's woeful performance, but scoring two goals in less than a minute could have changed the game dramatically. Everyone in the stadium knew the ball was in except the two people that mattered the most - the referee and his incompetent assistant. The Germans will doubtless say it is payback for Geoff Hurst's second goal in the 1966 final, but that was in too! But the blame really lies here with Sepp Blatter and FIFA. Cricket has it. Rugby has it. And so does Tennis, so why can't football use technology for incidents such as these? It's another damning indictment on what used to be the 'People's Game'.
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