England’s love-hate affair with the Cup

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AT Queens Park Rangers' modest Loftus Road ground former England goalkeeper Robert Green has no sooner taken his place between the sticks when the chants rise from the small band of visiting Ipswich Town supporters.

''USA! USA! USA!'' they scream, faces red and arms outstretched toward the target of their vitriolic chants.

It is almost four years since Green took his place in England's lavishly stocked Hall of World Cup Shame. The custodian's sin was to allow the ball to dribble from his arms and into the back of the net gifting the United States an equaliser in a group game. Safe to say, as long as Green pulls on a pair of goalkeeping gloves, he will never be allowed to forget.

It is not merely the consequence of Green's blunder – the lost points meant England was eventually consigned to a knock-out match against rampant Germany – that rankles.

In a country where sports fans now teeter emotionally between the nouveau triumphalism of the Olympics and the Ashes, and more traditional scepticism and self-loathing, the goalkeeper's howler was just all too predictable.

England goalkeeper Robert Green's moment of madness against USA. Source: AP

It is this sense of foreboding doom, interspersed with fleeting moments of cruel hope, which makes England's World Cup expeditions so compelling. Even more so given the fierce spotlight of a carnivorous media and, in recent years, the amusing sideshow created by the camera-seeking WAGS whose raids on local retail outlets are generally more devastating than their partner's raids on goal.

It is not a tale of endless futility. England's quest for the World Cup was, of course, achieved. The 4-2 triumph at the old Wembley Stadium against Germany in 1966 allowed a generation of thugs to scream ''Two World Wars and one World Cup'' from the terraces and immortalised the words of commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme's line as Geoff Hurst scored the winner: ''They think it's all over. It is now, it's four!''

That the final went into agonising extra-time and England's third goal was disputed – there was none of the goal-line technology we will see in Brazil back then – was apt. Even in victory England and its renowned sense of ''fair play'' was tortured and tantalised by the nagging, guilt-inducing thought of an ill-gotten goal.

Geoff Hurst scores for England in the 1966 World Cup final. Source: AP

Now? Forty eight years later, the knowledge that World Cup victory can be achieved only serves to frustrate and infuriate those who have never seen it done, or who can barely remember. England is like Sir Edmund Hilary finding he has left his keys and wallet on top of Mt Everest, but never able to clamber back to the summit.

It is a psychology that took hold slowly, almost nefariously. England did not enter the first three World Cups having abandoned FIFA because of the perceived dominance of ''foreign'' elements, and lingering animosity from World War 1. Back then the FA Cup was still more prestigious than the World Cup, not only in English eyes.

When England finally made its World Cup debut in 1950 there was a hint of the pain to come when they lost 1-0 to the USA. Such an unlikely result, the story goes, most assumed the ''1'' was missing from England's score on the cabled report and that England had won 10-1.

In the following editions defeats by the South American powerhouses Brazil and Uruguay would force England to confront an awkward truth – it had invented football, but the rest of the world was perfecting it. So victory in 1966 was vastly reassuring. England was – quite literally in this case – still the game's home.

Diego Maradona's famous 'hand of God' goal against England at the 1986 World Cup. Source: News Limited

Since then? A semi-final in 1990 and four quarter-finals. Not abject failure given the tournament has grown in size, stature and – most obviously – depth. But often it has been the nature of England's elimination, exaggerated by the outsized expectations of fans and the poisonous reviews of a forensic media, which makes England the World Cup's most compelling soap opera.

Although, as soap operas go, you might say this one jumped the shark in 1986 when England had its 'Who Shot JR?', 'Scott and Kylie's Wedding' and 'Molly dies on A Country Practice' moment all rolled into one.

Maradona, hero of England's Falklands War enemy Argentina, leaps to push the ball into the net in the quarter-final. Then, after the match, shamelessly transforms his blatant cheating into an article of religious faith: ''A little with the head of Maradona, a little with the hand of God,'' he would say.

WAGS is a dirty word for England. Source: News Limited

The moment has a different context in Argentina where the goal was considered reprisal for everything from Argentina's own poor treatment by the referees in the 1966 World Cup in England to the sinking of the General Belgrano by the British navy.

Whatever the sporting and geo-political ramifications, it says something about England's cursed World Cup fate that the outrage about Maradona's first ''goal'' had barely subsided when he beat five defenders and scored what was later voted FIFA's goal of the century. Thus England was beaten by both the hand of God and the boot of a master.

After that it could hardly get worse. But, in the very next World Cup, it did. A penalty-shootout defeat in the 1990 semi-finals to Germany that deprived England of its best chance to reach a second final.

Paul Gascoigne's famous tears at the 1990 World Cup. Source: AP

Paul Gascoigne was in tears before the final whistle knowing he would miss the final should England prevail. Although it might have been an early sign of Gascoigne's questionable intellect that he could even entertain the possibility of England beating Germany in a penalty shoot-out.

After Chris Waddle and Stuart Pearce had missed their penalties, Gascoigne was consoled on the pitch by manager Bobby Robson. ''Don't worry, you've been one of the best players of the tournament. You've been magnificent. You've got your life ahead of you. This is your first.''

And then? Naturally, England failed to qualify for the finals 1994, Gascoigne became a shambolic drunk and the World Cup continued to treat England as its personal whoopee cushion.

Will it be different this time round for Roy Hodgson's England? Source: AFP

More penalty shoot-out heartache against Argentina in 1998. A tantalising 1-0 lead in the 2002 quarter-final against Brazil becomes a noble 1-2 defeat. Penalties against Portugul in 2006 – again! Green's howler and humiliation against Germany in 2010.

Never quite awful, England. But oh-so agonising.

This time? The usual mixture of anticipation and dread deadened slightly by unusually low expectation.

England's best club teams are now stocked with rich imported talent unavailable to manager Roy Hodgson. Maddeningly, when a ''local'' superstar emerges he turns out to be Welsh. How England would love to be full of Bale instead of baleful.

Wayne Rooney will be in Brazil as some sort of beacon. So too will wife Colleen – reportedly under 24 hour guard as protection against potential Wag-napping. Perhaps Raheem Sterling will prosper in the World Cup furnace as another Liverpool tyro Michael Owen once did.

But seldom has the prospect of another England World Cup triumph seemed so unlikely. Which would make another tantalising run to the latter stages amusing and the chants waiting back home for the inevitable scapegoat even more vitriolic.

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