I have become so disillusioned with the England national football team over the years due to all the disappointment and poor performances that I gave up on them after they got knocked out of the 2012 European Championships. Since then I have only watched tournament games and haven't watched a single friendly or qualifier. In the run up to this world cup I was very pessimistic and I was even going to put a bet on that they wouldn't qualify out of their group and Harry Kane wouldn't score any goals. I didn't even watch the first two group games. Well, what can I say? I was proved to be very wrong and I was pleasantly surprised with how well they did. In a way it's restored some of my faith in the national team and going forward I won't be so pessimistic. There are lots of positives to take from their world cup performance but I'm under no illusions, I still don't think I'll see them win the world cup in my lifetime although this might be the beginning of much better things considering the average age of the squad is so young. The way that the Premiership and football in general is set up in England is to the detriment of the England team's chances and I don't think that will ever change because money has completely ruined football in my opinion and that will continue to keep the set up the way it is. We had a good run and it was a huge achievement for us to get as far as we did. I rode the crest of the euphoric wave for as far as it went and it was great. I was under no illusions, in my heart of hearts I didn't think they were good enough to win it but I was starting to believe that "football's coming home" at one point because of the luck we had with the draw. This is the only world cup we've ever been involved in where we could have got all the way to the final without playing a team that has previously won the tournament, or a team considered one of the best in current world football. It really was all there for the taking. Let's face it, that's the only way we could have won it and we blew that opportunity. The fact remains that other than the year we won the world cup in 1966 we have NEVER beaten a team that has won the world cup in a knock out game in the tournament. For the country that invented the "beautiful game" that is a truly pathetic fact.
The best thing about the tournament for me was England finally winning a penalty shoot out for the first time in a world cup and only the second time in eight attempts at tournaments. Hopefully this is a turning point and it will instill the belief that we can win them. I hope that Croatia go on to win it, firstly because it will make a nice change and secondly because I don't want France to have won the tournament once more than we have. Whatever happens, a European team will win it which means Europe 12 South America 9 in terms of world cup wins and if Croatia win it it'll be 6 European countries to have won it compared to South America's 3. I will continue my tradition of not watching England qualifiers or friendly games but I will watch them in the 2020 European Championships if they make it. The semi finals and final are being played at Wembley stadium, perhaps "football's coming home" then?