Yesterday Brazil played like two teams fused together: a physical, European-style rearguard of six formed a solid base from which their samba stars took Chile apart. Crucially (England, France and Italy take note), every man knew his role in a clearly defined system of play.

However many Englishmen pull on the three lions at major competitions it seems they will be united by one thing: a fear of failure. The nation may be stuck in a vicious circle. The more we talk of our players’ inability to recreate their club form on the international stage, the more they believe it themselves.

I’m sure like me, you have read every column inch and more on yesterday’s debacle in Bloemfontein including Mike and James excellent blogs on here. You may have come-up with a range of different opinions on the players and manager and what’s next for English football. Having taking in all of this, I’ve come to my own conclusion and for me the blame lies firmly with Fabio Capello.

Ok, it isn’t quite the end of the world but I think a few of us feel like that this morning. The usual knee-jerk reactions are gracing the airwaves and the newspapers this morning. The usual cries of “sack the manager” and “you let your country down” have been wheeled out and the nation is in mourning. I don’t know about you, but I am getting a bit fed up with this reaction after every tournament we play. I think we need to have a look at the deeper problems that beset our national team.

Here are just some of the the things the FA and Premier League should do (but probably won’t) to make a serious attempt to improve our national team.

So here we are. The Big One. There’s no escaping it and there’s no point wishing we could’ve played an easier team, because we didn’t top our World Cup group. Simple. Our opponents are Germany; a team full of individual flair, with particular emphasis on discipline (of course) and creative midfield play. England? We get [...]

Teams from the UEFA region have been outperformed by their rivals from across the Atlantic so far in the tournament. All five of South America’s representatives at the World Cup survived the group stage. By and large, they have been better to watch than many of the European sides too.

I’ve had such a bad feeling about this whole sorry saga that I haven’t wanted to share my thoughts on it until now. My decision to finally do so may or may not be because I am stuck in monsoon hit southern Poland with a dearth of alcohol or understandable television. Oh, or football. I’ll let you decide.

Avriadechi! I’m not going to dwell too much on yesterday’s result as far as I’m concerned it was job done. The fact that we were holding on to the lead with minutes ago against a team like Slovakia doesn’t bode well ahead of games against Germany and then possibly Argentina but the performance was so [...]

It just had to be Landon Donovan that scored the dramatic last-gasp winner against Algeria last night. The USA’s talisman has proved to be the difference between a workmanlike side able to match decent opposition over 90 minutes, and one that is able to surpass them. Last night he was the difference between an early exit from the World Cup and a passport to the last sixteen as the undefeated USA went through as winners of Group C.