No Beckham, England in Euro ’08
The remnants of a crestfallen crowd tried to dredge up some din for David Beckham, the last player to leave the field on a haunted Wednesday night.
As he applauded them in turn and possibly in farewell, their noise achieved a bit of warmth, quite a feat given what 88,091 had just absorbed inside Wembley Stadium. England had just lost to Croatia, 3-2, and failed to qualify for next year’s European Championship.
Not even the wizardry of a classic Beckham cross in a substitute role that enabled an equalizing goal in the 65th minute could prevent a jolting addition to England’s national collection of nadirs.
Even given the dour decades of the national team since it won the 1966 World Cup, Wednesday night spiraled its way into the dour hall of fame, matching England’s failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
How dour? So dour that the first question to Coach Steve McClaren in a news conference was a scant paraphrasing of the words, Have you resigned yet?
No, he had not, but if he doesn’t, they’ll probably do it for him after Croatia, playing with no incentive but fine quality, won over a set of global English rock stars who needed only a tie in the last qualifying game for Euro 2008.
Thereby did Croatia, which already had qualified as the winner of the seven-nation Group E, drag in Russia to the tournament. Thereby did England decline a gift from Israel, which had shocked Russia, 2-1, Saturday night in Tel Aviv. And thereby did McClaren speak for many when he said, “A massive pain. Indescribable, because it’s a huge disappointment.”
Ever since he inherited the post from former boss Sven-Goran Eriksson after the 2006 World Cup, McClaren had ridden along bumpily, drifting into peril last spring as newspapers spewed spite and his repairs included recalling Beckham, whom he had previously dropped. A three-win surge this fall brought contention, a loss at Moscow brought consternation, and Russia’s loss at Israel brought startling reprieve, so that English fans approached Wembley sensing a high, while you could wonder as to the motivation of the Croatian fans who filled a corner of the stadium.
Tabloid reports had a Russian magnate offering Mercedes cars to Croatian players if they’d just try to win.
Even though injury made spectators of such English stars as Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry, McClaren still had parts aplenty, so in his most-debated moves, he started the recently sharp Shaun Wright-Phillips instead of the recovered Beckham, and he subbed goalkeeper Paul Robinson with Scott Carson.
But what happened eight minutes in Wednesday night became the seed for decades of nightmares. Croatia’s Niko Kranjcar, who plays for rising Portsmouth in England’s Premier League, decided he’d whale a shot from about 30 yards, and it bounced in front of Carson, who clumsily let it glance off his left wrist and unleashed all manner of English dissolution.
Only six minutes later, Eduardo de Silva sliced through England’s defense and left one for Ivica Olic, who slid behind the defense and right in front of Carson, whom he out-maneuvered for a 2-0 lead.
Booed off the pitch, England returned to a mild cheer with the announced insertion of Jermaine Defoe for some offense, and a major cheer with the announced insertion of Beckham for some nostalgia.
Beckham’s two free kicks early in the second half seemed to bring the energy of anticipation if not the hard work of catching up. By the time Frank Lampard converted a penalty kick in the 56th minute to halve the deficit, the memorable seemed plausible.
The game’s build-up had included a Croatian scout fretting aloud about Beckham’s capacity to put crosses on striker Peter Crouch’s “eyebrows,” and while Beckham didn’t do that nine minutes later, he did send a glorious thing way across Wembley and squarely onto the beanpole’s scrawny chest.
Crouch booted the descending ball into the left corner of the net, and the sufficiency of the 2-2 tie created bedlam.
But then the match did turn memorable, for more sickly reasons, England-wise. A Croatian substitute, Mladen Petric, suddenly sent a 25-yard shot searing from the left side past Carson and into the right corner in the 77th minute, and soon Beckham bent over, hands on his knees amid four gutted teammates.
“We just didn’t perform tonight and that’s the end of it,” Beckham said.
