WORLD CUP ETC - REPORT: England vs. Japan, at Wembley Stadium in London

Declan Link reports from Wembley Stadium on disappointment for England, and an incredible recent record for Japan against European nations. 

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to World Cup etc. with me, Paul Schmitroschke. And today is of course quite a big day for global football because the last qualifying spots were filled for the World Cup starting in less than 80 days. But before we are speaking about these developments, we have Declan Link over in the UK in London, who just exited Wembley Stadium after the 1-0 loss by England against Japan. Declan, what was your feeling before the game? Um, especially after the quite disappointing uh draw against Uruguay just a couple of days ago.

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The atmosphere in the White Horse pub uh before the game was extremely subdued after Friday night's debacle. There was uh we didn't even have to show our reservations, uh proof of our reservations, because they was only probably three-quarters full. Very, very different from the Euros and other England games we've been to. So there was a lot of lack of interest tonight uh building up to the game. Walking up the short stairs part to Wembley Way was uh actually a bit more exciting. It was interesting because the Japanese section of away fans was probably three times the size allocated to the Uruguayan fans on Friday night, and they were definitely up for it, they were definitely into it. It was a wee bit confusing because a lot of the Japanese fans on the way there actually had England jerseys on, probably a a hangover from 2002 and the Beckham stuff. But moving into stadium was actually quite optimistic, and the atmosphere was quite good, particularly down the England game, down the England end where there was uh the band were playing and they were singing the songs, unlike Friday night. For our English fans out there, I do apologize for calling them jerseys, they're actually called away shirts, football shirts, etc. etc. But going into the uh game tonight, Japan, you know, are probably quite underrated, even though they're quite highly ranked in the world, and they have a stellar record against top European teams going in tonight's game, not losing in the last five games, and obviously not wanting to give the game away. But after tonight's win, that's six games they've done so well in. With Harry Kane not playing tonight, Ansaka missing, Rice missing, Bellingham missing, etc. etc. Those are all excuses as far as I'm concerned. Generally considering at this point we're close to uh Tuchel announcing his squad for the World Cup. I'm not sure that we're anywhere closer, and I just can't believe we are the second uh highest team they reckon in the betting to win the World Cup. Um the experiment with Phil Foden playing at number nine, false nine, didn't work. Anthony Gordon on the left-hand side, looked fast, looked dangerous, but when does he not look like that? And in general, it was just a very disappointing first half. Some substitutions in the second half that sort of changed things a little bit. But I think what said it all at the end of the day, and this is what football comes down to around the world, is the substitutes at the end. Everything I said in Friday night's podcast about Thomas Tuchel, I still believe in him, but honestly, we look so pedestrian, we looked relatively unorganized tonight, and I'm not sure that there's too many answers, too many new solutions that have come to Thomas Touchal. I honestly think it's confused the situation even more. The central defenders, the central defenders were all over the place in the first half, the team seemed quite unbalanced, and uh ultimately Japan looked faster, quicker, more technical, more explosive, and were very, very well deserving of their goal. It was a very nice goal scored at our end, and uh, you know, England definitely did not look anything like we expected them to do in the last game before Thomas Tougal and actually announces his squad, throwing on Harry Maguire and Dan Byrne and trying to get set pieces by launching the ball into the box from every conceivable angle, particularly corner kicks, for the last however many minutes. Jordan Pickford smashing the ball up the field to hopefully get something off a set piece actually was something very alarming that we we we resorted, England resorted to basically what every other team does in the world. I'm surprised they didn't stick Pickford up front for the last two minutes. So ultimately, very, very disappointing night. We'll continue to support England through thick and thin. But there was a lot of uh memories of the Euros in particular uh with regards to tonight's performance, and I don't think we're any closer to actually winning a World Cup and actually having a settled team than we thought we would be after the qualifying campaign. So New Zealand and Costa Rica, Costa Rica got beaten 5-0 by Iran yesterday. They neither of those games are gonna be stiff tests going into the World Cup, and I think we're gonna have a work cut out against Croatia, against Ghana, and possibly against Panama, and everyone planning to go to Atlanta for the round of 32, everyone planning to go to Mexico for the round of 16, need to have contingency plan B, C, and D, because that probably ain't gonna happen. As they say, football's a funny old game. When all is said and done, Japan's success and South Korea's success in recent years in the World Cup and regional tournaments comes down to and I never thought I'd ever think I'd say this, set platters wisdom with regards to spreading the World Cup around different geographic parts of the world. Back in 2002, when me and Cookie did 11 games in 15 days, we went to South Korea three times from our base in Japan. Obviously, 24 years later, uh sort of um sowed the seeds for that generation to want to become top-class professionals around the world. And if you look at all of the European leagues, uh the North American leagues and other leagues around the world, including Australia Australia and New Zealand, there is no question you find an incredible amount of highly talented, uh very soccer knowledgeable um Japanese and South Korean players. So ultimately, when all is said and done, um Uncle Set, who we all love nowadays, compared to Uncle Johnny, is probably the reason why Japan is doing so well. I'm not sure they're a contender for the World Cup. However, they definitely are doing very well against European teams and we're extremely impressive tonight. Over and out from Wembley.