Football World Cup 2002: Andy Gray column - Don't blame the keeper -

THERE'S no point beating about the bush, so here goes. England did as well as I expected them to. They were not good enough to win the World Cup and you can talk about the dream that died until you are blue in the face because that is all it ever was . . . a dream.

In the end they were knocked out by a superior team, not because David Seaman made an embarrassing mistake. Don't make Seaman a scapegoat - all the England players are to blame for blowing any chance they had of reaching the semi-finals.

Whether he got done by brilliance or a piece of good fortune doesn't matter. Seaman was off his line and he knows he should have done better, but that's no reason to slaughter a world-class goalkeeper.

Unfortunately for David the ball dropped in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time. Ronaldinho could try it another 100 times and he wouldn't get close so, whether fluke or genius, it will go down as either the best or luckiest free-kick of the tournament, not the biggest goalkeeping cock-up.

The fact is that David Seaman's international career is probably over. He will be 40 by the time the European Championship comes around and that really is pushing it, so it would be an injustice if all the good work he has done for his country is forgotten because of one bit of misfortune.

The trouble with England at the moment is that they have no consistency, and even when they do play well they are too happy to sit back and let teams come at them instead of taking the initiative.

When you are in a big game you need your big players to stand tall, and against Brazil England's stars failed to deliver. David Beckham was disappointing, Paul Scholes didn't influence the game the way he can, and even though Michael Owen scored he was hardly on fire. England's best players, once again, were in the back four and that tells a story in itself.

I was disappointed with England's inability to create chances. They had one shot on target, one goal, and even that was down to the inability of the Brazilian defender to cope with the pass from Emile Heskey. Apart from that there was a complete failure to create anything that looked promising.

Everyone was talking about the Brazilians' so-called lack of ability to defend. Really? I think those people were fooling themselves. When you have people like AC Milan's Roque Junior, Leverkusen's Lucio and Edmilson, who plays for Lyon, you're not going to have a suspect defence.

So it was always going to be difficult for England but they will be disappointed with the way they tackled this game, particularly when Brazil had Ronaldinho sent off.

It is never easy to play against a well organised 10 men but you can't just sit back, lose possession of the ball and hope something will happen. When Ireland played against a 10-man Spanish side they created a succession of chances and could have gone on to win.

I never felt that with England. They never looked like troubling Brazil and I think Sven Goran Eriksson made a mistake when he took off Ashley Cole and Trevor Sinclair and went to three at the back.

This meant England were suddenly playing down a narrow channel with no width and the Brazilians were able to cope with everything that came through the middle of the park.

It was obvious to me that the Brazilians' only weakness was coping with anything that came wide on the flanks, so England stopped doing the one thing that might have given them a chance. When you play against 10 men you have to make the pitch as wide as possible, and England failed to do that.

England know they have a solid defence so they seem happy when teams come at them and then hope to hit them on the break with the pace they have up front. But when they are forced to attack, as they were against Brazil, they don't have enough guile or craft.

From what I remember the Brazilian keeper didn't have to make one save in the second half, and that is so disappointing.

Brazil always had more about them. Their ability to create chances was a joy to watch. Even when they were down to 10 men Roberto Carlos and Cafu were bombing down the wing and creating chances. Their first goal, created out of absolutely nothing, epitomises the way they play.

That goal ripped the England defence apart but I still cannot fault the performances of Danny Mills, Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand - England's best player of the tournament - and Ashley Cole. They did a magnificent job when a lot was asked of them by their team-mates.

If England are to move forward they need to dictate the game a bit more, and learn how to control games when they take the lead against quality opposition. They need to take the huge talent they have got, mature it, and take some of the pressure off the back four.

My verdict on England is that they did OK. No more than that. This was a World Cup too early for them.

The players will be better for the experience and can go into Euro 2004 knowing they will be the team to beat. Four years from now, if they continue to progress, they will have a more realistic chance of winning the World Cup.Interview: STEVE McKENLAY

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