England pay the penalty

Before England played Italy I had been rather optimstic. Infact I thought that England would progress all the way to the semi-finals where they would play Germany. Dream on Jason! This was a poor performance by England and if they had beaten the Italians it would have been a major injustice. They were outplayed across the park. It should have been the showpiece match of Roy Hodgson´s new England era. It ended like they usually do in defeat on penalties. Now, there are some positives which Hodgson can take from the European Championship. He does have a group of young players who do appear to have talent and could be the England stars of the future. But there is little else. There are some players who should never have been selected for England and I don´t think it was wise idea to start with Wayne Rooney. Against Ukraine Rooney was lacking in match fitness, against Italy he was poor and squandered some golden chances. So another European Championship has passed and England were eliminated in the good old fashioned way on penalties. What does the future hold for England? Well, Hodgson must start training his squad to deal with penalty shootouts. England always seem to miss two. And then he must find a new team because the old guard will soon start to retire. The new England team must learn two things; to keep possession of the ball for more than a few minutes and how to take penalties.