SPAIN'S EURO WIN LEAVES ENGLAND ROCK BOTTOM
'Grave were their spirits, mournful their mood…too sore the anguish,
loathly and long, that lay on his folk, most baneful of burdens and bales of the night.' - Beowulf
And so the Three Lions failed to roar again when it mattered and the land that gave the world the great game of football sinks into another trough of despair.
All the heartfelt English prayers uttered to the footballing gods fell on deaf ears in Berlin. All the professions of faith in a badge that has not won anything in colour television rang hollow.
Every soccer superstition followed by millions back in England and every pound sterling and Euro spent by those who hurried to Berlin to witness a sacred moment of football history were ultimately in vain. The English ships ran aground short of their goal again.
'30 years of hurt' was the line from the Euro '96 anthem Three Lions which still echoes every couple of years, but it now sounds rather quaint. Fifty Years of Hurt was the title of Henry Winter's 2016 book about the national team's quest for a second trophy. Come the next World Cup it will be 60 years of hurt. Will England ever win another tournament?
This was supposed to be their golden chance, the now or never tournament. And they tripped at the final hurdle yet again. What makes the mood so low in England today is not the dreary summer of rain but the painful realisation football may never come home. Fans can dream all they want but faith is just not enough.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, wrote Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, which could have applied to Madrid and London the day after Euro 2024.
The soccer gods smiled on Spain all right. On Monday, the sun beamed down from a clear blue heaven across the Spanish capital, and the thermometer reached 32 Celsius as the Spanish team touched down at Barajas airport and carried the gleaming silver trophy down the steps of their plane on the way to a lengthy party in Plaza de Cibeles, Madrid.
Alvaro Morata grabbed the microphone and yelled that Spain was the best country in the world and that Gibraltar was Spanish, to thousands of cheers. Dani Carvajal pulled off his top to bathe in the heat.
Meanwhile in London, grey clouds swamped the capital, the temperature was ten degrees cooler than Madrid and the rain bucketed down, bringing flood warnings. England's footballers trudged off their plane in their tracksuits beneath leaden skies with no-one to greet them.
THE WRONG FAVOURITES
A second successive Euros final defeat tasted even more bitter this time than when England threw away the lead at home to Italy three years ago, because this squad was stronger. Unfortunately for England, so were the 2024 opposition. Spain were clearly ahead of all the other 23 nations in Germany so nobody can begrudge them their triumph.
Unfancied before it all kicked off, La Roja played smooth and confident football from the first whistle and soon replaced England as the true favourites. Rodri won the player of the tournament but Marc Cucurella and Dani Olmo also emerged as world-class performers by the end of the final having grown in stature over the seven games. Add to that their excellent two young wingers Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal and their galaxy had more stars.
England's bright lights by contrast did not shine. Harry Kane was the Bundesliga's top scorer this season, Jude Bellingham La Liga's Player of the Season and Phil Foden the Premier League's best player, but the trio never clicked. England's stand-out players from the tournament were probably the unheralded Marc Guehi, Cole Palmer, John Stones and Ollie Watkins.
In the final, Foden was tasked with blunting his Man City teammate and Spain's sharpest weapon Rodri, a task he performed rather well, but that meant he was subdued as an attacking threat himself.
Bellingham, England's best player on paper, was sent to the left of midfield, an unnatural exile redolent of Steven Gerrard's England career and so he was unable to reproduce his Real Madrid form in his other white jersey.
The Three Lions maintained the safety-first tactics Gareth Southgate has perfected for the last eight years. Over seven games, only in the opening 30 minutes against Serbia and the first 45 minutes against the Netherlands did they dominate, and only when falling behind four times did they really attack or excite. Apart from those brief periods it was largely a matter of 'let's keep it tight and hope to nick a goal'.
In truth England were no better than a number of sides who fell by the wayside - France, Germany and Portugal spring to mind, and a 2-1 loss to Spain probably flattered them.
La Roja were the outstanding team of the tournament and had navigated rougher seas to the final, sinking the battleships of Croatia, Italy, Germany and France en route, while England had struggled with the cruisers of Slovakia, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
It is easy to forget Spain had lost their finest and the tournament's best player Rodri at half time in the final but still won. They had strength in depth in terms not of individuals per se but rather a system they all understood. After a decade of on-field tedium that followed the end of their golden age, La Roja are back on top. Spain used to be called Red Fury (La Furia Roja) - can we call them that again?
THE DE LA FUENTE DIFFERENCE
All credit and blame have to go to managers at the top of a football hierarchy. They have to take the responsibility for success and failure. So while Southgate takes the rap for his team's loss, Luis De La Fuente is the main reason Spain won Euro 2024.
In 2013, the man whose professional experience had gone no higher than 11 games in charge of a third division side, was appointed Spain's U19 coach and his road to Euros glory began. Contrary to popular belief, De La Fuente did not work with most of the Euro 2024 contingent until in more recent years but it was over a decade ago when he began to hone his methods.
His first success was the 2015 U19 Euros, where Mikel Merino and Rodri manned central midfield for Spain as they beat Russia 2-0 in the final. Another graduate of that tournament who would play at Euro 2024 was his goalkeeper Unai Simon.
De La Fuente said at the time that his team then was "insatiable", adding sagely, "We can be very optimistic for the future because we have a large talent base in Spain. Many of the players we've seen today will be in the first division in a few years and in the national team."
It was not pure success from then on. The following summer, De La Fuente's U19 side featuring Simon and Euro 2024 matchwinner Mikel Oyarzabal lost 2-0 at home to England no less, coached by Aidy Boothroyd.
In 2017, his U-19 side featuring Marc Cucurella lost again to a Three Lions side including Trent Alexander-Arnold and Aaron Ramsey, 3-0. In 2018, with Ferran Torres, they were knocked out 4-2 in Benidorm by a French side that had Ousmane Dembele.
In 2019, Spain won the U19 crown again but were managed by Santi Denia because De La Fuente was busy winning the U21 tournament, defeating Germany 2-1 in the final with Dani Olmo, Oyarzabal and Fabian Ruiz starring.
De La Fuente's last tournament with the U21s was in 2021 where, with Cucurella at left back and Martin Zubimendi in midfield, they lost the semi-final 1-0 to Portugal.
Only by the time his senior side won the 2023 Nations League did the Spanish eleven resemble this year's champions, with seven of his Euro 2024 winners lifting that particular trophy. Doubts had been raised when he stepped up to the senior side as to whether an association coach could manage senior pros but the rest is history.
De La Fuente and the Royal Spanish Football Federation had obviously found a recipe for success long before this summer - using pace on the flanks, overlapping and underlapping full backs and solid distributive midfielders.
Blessed with the unassuming Rodri, Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal, the Spain of 2024 had no alpha male personalities like Sergio Ramos, Gerard Pique or David Villa. They instead seemed like a youth side who had grown together without egos, much like England were in 2018.
If the football world scrambled to copy the winning formulas of the Ajax academy, Milan's Milanello complex, Barcelona's La Masia and France's Clairefontaine national training centre, then now it should take a leaf or two out of De La Fuente's book of magic.
ENGLAND'S SHORTCOMINGS
The Three Lions have had their own base, St George's Park, since 2012 and a plan - the England DNA philosophy, since 2014, which has transformed their fortunes, but has not taken the senior team over the line yet.
If England are to end 60 years of hurt in 2026, they will need to tweak their DNA based on how Spain defeated them at Euro 2024.
The most obvious difference in Berlin was the Spanish speed in the counterpress. England could not maintain possession like they had in previous rounds (having kept the ball more than Spain) because red shirts were always sprinting to swarm around them. By contrast, England were not gegenpressing with any similar intensity when Spain had the ball.
So it is fair to ask, if the Spanish could close down the opposition so quickly, why had the English players, who all press at club level, not been taught to press at national level?
A 2-1 scoreline suggests a close game but the statistics reveal a wider gulf: Spain won the possession battle easily, 63% to 37%, made double the number of attacks England did, 60 to 31, and double the successful passes, 496 to a meagre 246. It was no contest in the end.
For the fourth knockout game in a row, the Three Lions fell behind and fought back to equalise, proving they had what it took to score when they needed to, but playing catch-up a fourth time they ran out of clock.
The fans and media had been screaming for England to attack more from the start of Euro 2024 and once Oyarzabal toe-poked past Jordan Pickford in the 86th minute, it was too late to come back again.
Instead of powering on for a second goal using the momentum of Palmer's exquisite strike, England instead went into their shell again, counting down the clock and possibly hoping to win with penalties having converted five so expertly against Switzerland.
That was the wrong approach and was fairly punished. It seemed like a repeat of the 2020 final when England took the lead and sat back instead of going for a second.
While Spain had two flying wide boys Williams and Yamal. England had only one tricky winger on the right in Bukayo Saka but no threat on the left.
Yamal, the anointed hero of the final, was actually nullified by three early Luke Shaw tackles and failed to star, but Williams took up the baton and proved a protagonist, scoring once and whipping in dangerous crosses at every opportunity.
In goal, Jordan Pickford pulled off some good saves but his distribution was below the standard expected of sweeper keepers today, too often launching it to lose possession.
The other sore thumb for England was Southgate's persistence with an ineffectual Kane instead of a livewire Watkins. England's record goalscorer obviously needs fast runners on either side of him to function - at Bayern Munich he has Jamal Musiala and Leroy Sane, at Tottenham he had Dele Ali and Son Heung-Min and for England he used to have Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling, all players who stretch the opposition defence and leave space for colleagues behind them.
But Southgate had left those two at home and inexplicably kept the fleet-footed Anthony Gordon benched, leaving his captain all at sea. Kane was finally subbed after Bellingham had begged him for a change, a salutary lesson in the limits of player loyalty.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
For what is such an exciting, high-tempo domestic league, England have always managed to produce a lethargic national team, with the exception of Terry Venables' demolition of the Dutch at Euro '96.
In two years from now, the summer heat and humidity of the USA, Mexico and Canada will make it even harder to run fast, so a defensive approach might work, but the ubiquitous feeling is that Southgate's cautious tactics have now run their course.
What the next manager will bring in terms of a playing philosophy we will find out, but a focus on personalities instead of telepathic teamwork is probably the root of the current problem. As former England striker Alan Shearer noted, England were only a team of moments at Euro 2024. While the Three Lions had great individuals, Spain were a much brighter unit.
Even after their Euro 2024 win, Spain’s squad are collectively worth less in the transfer market than England’s supposed superstars, a mean average of £41 million versus £65 million per player.
There is just something about England and individualism. It has a rich entrepreneurial history and its political philosophy has tended towards free market liberalism, bar a 40 year spell following the Second World War.
When Margaret Thatcher made her most contentious claim that in Britain there was "No such thing as society", she may only have been making an observation.
Even the England fans at the Euros looked different to others and to each other. Compare them to the Dutch sea of orange marching together to each match with their 'Left-Right' dance.
Give the ball to the star man and let him score, goes the thinking: Tom Finney, Stanley 'The Wizard of Dribble' Matthews, Kevin Keegan, Glenn Hoddle, Paul Gascoigne, Matthew Le Tissier, Wayne Rooney…
I remember watching the BBC coverage of the playoff for Euro '96 between the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland, in what would be Jack Charlton's last game in charge of Eire, and Ruud Gullit was the studio guest.
Des Lynam, the presenter, asked him as he always asked invited experts, to name players who had stood out for him during the match.
Gullit replied that it was wrong to pick out individuals when the salient point was that Guus Hiddink's Holland had adopted the Ajax system for the night and won.
And that is the problem with English football. There always has to be a Man of the Match, when what it needs is a team that plays with telepathy.
Sean O'Conor
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