England the new Germany?

I read this article and couldn't help but think that, assuming this isn't the usual case of media misrepresentation, Capello has started to become delusional. In short, after playing several youngsters and only managing a draw against an admittedly impressive Ghana, Capello is in a good mood about the future of England.

To be fair, this is probably an accurate assessment if you were only looking at recent games as England have done well recently. However, Capello goes on to say that he hopes that people will talk about Engalnd the same way that they were talking about Germany after the recent World Cup.

Que? Is this for real?

For starters, this impressive performance by England was in an international friendly. In case you forgot, England generally do well in friendlies and in qualifying competitions. Where England traditionally screw up is when they start playing in big tournaments at which point the players immediately fold and put in awful performances before being knocked out of the competition. By now, this is a pattern which is all too horribly familiar for any England football fan.

Now, lets look at Germany. With a squad of young players, they were able to play attractive attacking football in a major tournament and, although they didn't win the World Cup, they managed to get third place (after being knocked out by the eventual winners).

Is there any surprise that Germany were heaped with praise? There simply is no comparison and to suggest otherwise is insulting to Germany's achievement at the World Cup.