The thing that comes to mind after the defeat last night is that we all pretend to want skillful and attacking football, but at the end of the day there is only one thing that matters ... winning.
If we had managed just 2 shots on target like Uruguay last night and been totally outplayed for 90 minutes but ended up winning these 2 games, the press, pundits and public would all have criticised our playing style but in 20, 30, 40 years time we would look back and say "what a great year it was" if we managed to get to the semi's or Final.
In 66 we narrowly beat France and Mexico and drew with the Uruguayans in the group stage, had one goal victories against the 10 men of Argentina and Portugal in the semi's and required extra time and 2 dodgy goals in the final to win (if the crowd were on the pitch the game should have been stopped), but we all bang on about that great team till this day.
In 90 we scraped draws against Ireland and Holland and beat the mighty Egyptians 1-0 to get through the group, needed a last minute winner to beat Belgium after being outplayed, scraped through against Cameroon with 2 penalties then lost to Germany.
But I admit to saying what a great competition that was.
In 82 we played some fine football winning all 3 group games and holding the Germans and Spanish in the 2nd group and going out of the tournament without losing a game despite missing our 2 best players (Keegan and Brooking) for all but the last half hour. But nobody ever brings that year up because we came home early.
Even if we had bored our way to 2 goalless draws this time, the World cup would still be alive for me and I would be watching every match, but with us virtually out the thought of sitting through Honduras v Ecuador and Nigeria v Bosnia has lost all the appeal and I'll be avoiding the box for the majority of games from now on :(
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