Penalty pain that gives Southgate a crucial edge
After coping with THAT miss in 1996 he can take what job throws at him
HE HAD walked quickly up to the penalty spot that day at Wembley more than 21 years ago in a manner that betrayed the nerves that he and everyone in the old stadium were feeling.
He had placed the ball on the spot, retreated swiftly and then, with scarcely a glance at the German goalkeeper, turned to run back towards the spot.
Gareth Southgate hit his kick to the right of Andreas Kopke but not far enough to the right and Kopke dived and parried it away. The ball rolled back past Southgate as he turned and put his hands on his hips. On the bench, manager Terry Venables chewed his nails. On the pitch, Paul Gascoigne threw a water bottle to the turf in despair.
Southgate has referenced his penalty miss in the Euro 96 semi-final against Germany at least once already since he took over as England manager.
He showed footage of it to his players as part of a motivational montage ahead of their game against the world champions in Dortmund last March, a match England lost 1-0.
And he referred to it again as he stood in a corridor near the changing rooms at the new Wembley an hour after England’s comeback victory over Slovakia last Monday night, a win that all but ensured his side will be in Russia next year to contest the World Cup finals.
Southgate is nearly a year into his tenure as England boss and the approach of the anniversary was marked by his players being jeered in Malta during a 4-0 victory and by thousands of empty seats at Wembley for the 2-1 win over the second best team in England’s group.
But Southgate understands the rhythms of the international game. He understands the highs and the lows. He understands the hysterical optimism and its close companion, the misery of disillusion. He knows that being top of Group F doesn’t mean England are close to being the equal of Spain, Germany or France.
But the impossible job? A year in, Southgate doesn’t think so. That is why he mentions that penalty at Euro 96. Once he learned to overcome a trauma like that, even the pressures of being the England manager going into the World Cup will hold few fears for him.
‘ I’m able to rationalise everything,’ Southgate said, ‘and hopefully provide the players with some perspective as well because I don’t think I’ll have to go through worse individually than I’ve been through already, in terms of what happened in 96 and the 10 years of fall-out.
‘It gives you some perspective, along with other things in life you go through. You know, I’m 47 and if you can’t use those experiences to help the team, to take pressure off t he t eam and be calm in t he moments we’ve had in the last four or five days and show them the path forward, then I’m the wrong person for the job. That is the advantage of having been through the system and managed the Under 21s as well. There are obviously other things I haven’t experienced, which other managers have. But i nternational football i s quite unique. It is a different set of challenges and to have been around an England camp and to know what was probably going to come over the last couple of days, as an example, is very important.’
Those matches against Malta and Slovakia carried with them the unmistakably familiar feeling of the end of a honeymoon period and the onset of reality. England’s reality is that they are five points clear at the top of their qualifying group but still a world away from being as accomplished as Europe’s best.
Southgate watched the Spain-Italy game on television and was realistic about what he saw and the fact that it was football on a different level. ‘That’s the level we have got to aspire to,’ Southgate said. ‘Two top teams. Top players with brilliant international and club experience. Tactically really well drilled. Game savvy. It’s a similar path that Steve [Holland] and myself went when we took over the Under 21s. We looked at what the areas were we had to improve upon.
‘You look at the players in the Spanish team and the big matches they have been involved in. They use the confidence in those big games because they have been through so many that they just have that belief that that is where they should be.
‘That’s going to take time for us but the pleasing thing is that pretty much all of the outfield team that started tonight will play Champions League football this year. There’s only Ryan Bertrand who won’t. That’s really big experience for us. You might think we don’t want them to go too far because we don’t want too many games but it’s the opposite really.
‘If we’re building for mid to long term as well as wanting to do as well as we can in Russia, then the more they experience those big nights under pressure against good technical players with different tactical challenges, it can only benefit England.’
In some ways, it makes sense to say that the result was everything on Monday night because it was such an important step towards ensuring automatic qualification for Russia and avoiding the prospect of missing out on the World Cup finals for the first time in 24 years. But younger England fans have been bred on a diet of imperious qualifying campaigns swiftly followed by a series of mind-numbi ngly abject performances in tournaments so it is little wonder that cynicism has joined triumphalism in the reaction to England’s victory over the Slovaks.
But Southgate’s year in charge has also brought a sense of purpose and calmness to a job so many say is poison. Some have criticised him for playing Eric Dier and Jordan Henderson or Jake Livermore together as holding midfielders but Southgate cannot magic better players on to the pitch. England’s ordinariness is unavoidable but so far Southgate is making the best of it.
He has been sure-footed in the job, too, which was the minimum requirement after the debacle of Sam Allardyce’s 67- day reign. Maybe this England team is a harder sell because it is the first shorn of the superstars of the era of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand and David Beckham but even if progress is slow, there is a feeling things are at least moving in the right direction.
The next step is to try to secure automatic qualification by beating Slovenia at Wembley next month. Then there are plans for friendlies against Holland, Brazil, Germany and Italy. Then there will be the World Cup. Then the screaming starts.