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| May 24, 2006 | Wednesday | Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1427 |
World Cup Soccer: England to put behind shootout ghosts
LONDON, May 23: England's World Cup hopefuls are determined to end a tale of woe in penalty shootouts that has dogged their country's hopes of trophy success. England will leave for Germany having known far more agony than ecstasy in a discipline which has come to play a key part in the latter stages of tournament soccer.
Shootout misses have condemned England to exits at World Cups in 1990 and 1998, along with Euro 96 on home soil and by hosts Portugal in Euro 2004.
England will probably have to face their demons to succeed at the finals where games will be very tight after a group stage against Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago and Sweden.
“If we're not prepared for them this time, then I don't think we ever will be,” experienced defender Gary Neville told reporters at a training camp in Portugal.
“We've had so many bad experiences with penalties.
Neville believes it is harder to beat the current generation of keepers, many of whom will have done their homework on the players they are likely to face.
With James relegated to the subs bench in Germany, the weight of responsibility for England will fall squarely on the shoulders of Paul Robinson.
The taciturn Yorkshireman feels ready and able to cope with a World Cup shoot-out — but is keeping the secret of his preparation very much to himself.“I have been doing a lot of research and I'll be going into penalty shoot-outs — if and when we come across them — very well prepared,” he told reporters.
One man who is famous for having experienced both extremes of emotion is former England defender Stuart Pearce, now Manchester City's manager.
His penalty was saved in England's 1990 World Cup semi-final defeat by Germany in a shootout.
“My world collapsed,” he later wrote in his autobiography “Psycho”.
“I had been taking penalties for as long as I could remember but now I'd missed the most important penalty of my life in the semi-final of the World Cup.
“If the walk from the centre circle had been long and nerve-racking, the walk back was a nightmare as the first onrush of tears pricked at my eyes.”
But Pearce confronted his demons six years later at Wembley -- scoring from the spot against Spain at Euro '96 and giving a roar of release after the ball hit the net.
“When I scored my reaction wasn't stage-managed,” he wrote.—Reuters
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