England player Gareth Southgate (video editing: Matan Haddad)
Empathy, honesty and determination - these are the three qualities that most characterize the manager of the England team, Gareth Southgate, which made the public throughout the country fall in love with the figure who is now leading the national team to his third major tournament on the lines.
Reaching the first final since winning the World Cup on home ground at Wembley in 1966 and qualifying for the semi-finals of the last World Cup were critical and impressive milestones that Southgate led, but it is possible that the special moment that characterized Southgate - the person first - happened on the pitch after The victory in the decisive kicks from eleven meters against Colombia that helped the Three Lions to qualify for the quarter-final stage, when for the first time in its history England won a penalty shootout in the framework of the World Cup.
While the professional staff and the players began to celebrate after overcoming the South American opposition who had mostly frustrated them throughout the game, Southgate walked the pitch full of purpose to find Mathieus Uribe,
The Colombian player who missed the penalty kick for his team, and comfort him.
It was not an accidental act by Southgate, a calculated and restrained figure who tends not to externalize emotions excessively, but a move with a deep meaning of identification and a rare moment of unity.
22 years earlier, it was the manager himself, then a young player with no aura, who missed the penalty kick in Euro 1996 at the National Stadium, a miss that cost England the opportunity to qualify for the European Championship finals and take another step towards closing the gap and winning a major title after a thirty-year drought .
Qualifying for the semi-finals of the World Cup in Russia four years ago was defined as successful for the three lions, but alongside the feeling that the national team was able to upgrade itself professionally (especially after the failed Euro 2016 under Roy Hodgson, which ended with an embarrassing elimination against the Iceland team), many voices emerged of criticism from home that the road to the big four was paved with a relatively easy draw on paper and despite the identity of the opponent in the semi-finals, Croatia, the national team should have shown more maturity, maintained the early advantage and qualified for the final against France.
The last European Championship, which was postponed a year following the outbreak of the Corona crisis, was spread across several host countries across the continent and despite qualifying for the final (held again at the national stadium), a sense of disappointment grew stronger in the homeland of football after the loss to Italy.
While the original idea of holding a major European tournament for the first time in several countries was first seen as unique and exciting,
The sensations on the ground taught mainly about a logistical nightmare (which intensified due to the various corona restrictions that were imposed) when the fans and the national teams had to swallow thousands of miles from destination to destination.
Except for the quarter-final stage in which the English team easily beat Ukraine 0:4 in Rome, the three lions played all their games at home, enjoyed the support of their fans and maximum freshness, and the national expectation was to finish the job and win the European Championship for the first time ever.
The expectations were for a win.
Euro 2020 final (Photo: Reuters)
The recently ended Nations League campaign was not only defined as a professional failure, when at the end of it England was relegated to the second tier, but mainly increased the question marks as to how far the team is able to reach the decisive moments again and even more importantly - how Southgate's players can take the missing steps to overcome The best teams in the world in the moments of truth and to reach the promised land - won a major tournament - for the first time in nearly sixty years of exhausting waiting.
After the away loss to Italy in the Nations League campaign - which marked the fifth game in a row without a win for the national team - a significant portion of the fans who accompanied England to the game rained scathing boos on Southgate and his players as they left the grass at the San Siro Stadium, loudly expressing their disappointment at another frustrating performance and throwing There is obvious doubt in England's chances to struggle with the dominant teams that are going to set the tone in Qatar this winter.
The manager himself took responsibility for another purposeless performance, but emphasized that in his eyes the lack of success in the Nations League campaign is not going to predict future failure in the World Cup and his status as the man who is going to lead England to another major tournament: "I know we will receive criticism about our last campaign and rightfully so. But at the same time I think yes, I am the right person to coach the team in the World Cup, this is the right way and above all - the stable one'', he emphasized and even found a positive angle to the last failed campaign, ''in the distant past as a team we had a series of successful friendlies before a major tournament and we arrived with excessive confidence which sometimes even hurt us.
The fact that now not only do we know that we are vulnerable, but above all we know what our comfort zones are and where exactly we need to improve, for me this is an important part of a healthy preparation process for a long and successful tournament,'' he explained.
Southgate's style of play, which is considered conservative and risk-free, raises questions from home as to how much the manager is really addressing the amount of talent that exists in his current squad and above all, to what extent he has the ability to get the most out of them.
The 'golden generation' of England in the past that included names like Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and others is considered an extraordinary and unique generation of world quality that existed in almost every position, but the main The claims of their lack of success in leading the national expectations to actual victories on the grass were discussed in the huge camps from their various teams which penetrated deep into the dressing room and violated the sensitive balance required in the national team.
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Southgate (Photo: Reuters)
Except for the brake position, which is now considered the Achilles heel of the Three Lions in the current version, Southgate's apparent squad and composition offers freshness alongside experience, quality alongside balance, with goalkeeper Jordan Pickford (whose status question regularly pops up before the start of every major tournament) Considered one of the mainstays of the team and in practice always managed to deliver the goods when called to the national flag.
The attack squad of the Three Lions is considered one of the most attractive in the entire tournament and includes exciting players led by the national captain, Harry Kane, alongside names such as Phil Foden, Bokayo Saka, Jack Grealish and Marcus Rashford while the engine and heart of the team, the link squad, offers a breath of fresh air And promising at the same time, in the form of Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice and Mason Mount.
However, if in normal times the success achieved by the team in the last two tournaments would have caused a significant gust of optimism among most of the world football empires before going to another significant tournament, this is not how things are in the homeland of football now.
In a period of political instability in which England changes prime ministers at an unimaginable rate and in the midst of the local winter that will push millions of fans to the local pubs in the hope of warming up from the cold that has begun to show its signs, the general insecurity that currently prevails among the fans of the national team may change from the first moment of the opening kick of the three The Lions against Iran on November 21.
The famous song 'Football is coming home!'.
which reached new decibels throughout the stages of the last Euro and is heard regularly among the English fan camp at the opening of every major tournament, has already begun to be heard initially on the local radio stations in recent days, openly hinting to the fans of the national team that another significant tournament is about to open soon.
The current England under the guidance of Gareth Southgate is light years away from the headlines that surrounded the 'Golden Generation' that repeatedly failed to lead the team to the decisive stages, but on the positive side, the latest version of the Three Lions offers a united dressing room, a cohesive front and a squad experienced in major tournaments that will try to create positive momentum throughout an intense tournament uniquely held in the midst of an active gaming season.
The popular question, 'Will football return home?', which is regularly asked before the start of every significant tournament, naturally pops up on a daily basis among football fans in England who dream of taking another small and challenging step in the knock-out stages.
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