wpdavid
Hall of Fame Member
That would be my take on it. It was always likely that Germany would regroup over half time and that England wouldn't be able to maintain any sort of intensity. I stuck around long enough into the second half to see Gerrard miscue a decent chance wide of the near post, told my missus it would be 3-1 or 4-1 and took my son over to the park. Yes, of course the Lamard decision was a ****ing joke which simply shouldn't happen at this level, but we'd been utterly outclassed for most of the first half and to give a away the two goals that we did before half time was village green stuff. Quite how anyone could comments on the German's supposed defensive frailties had always been beyond me given the impotence of our attack and the likelihood that theirs would rip our painfully slow defence to shreds, and so it proved. It was all very well whining about Beckenbauer's comments, but they always sounded true to me, and so that proved too.The goal only would have reverted the game back to how it was when it began though, with Germany better than England and therefore more likely to progress. It's a blow for sure, but it only cost England about a 30% chance of getting through. They were still underdogs on account of being the inferior team.
Farewell to the 'golden generation' then: I can't say I'll miss them at all. It'll be fun for some poor sod trying to put together a new side from the few Englishmen who get a game in the PL.