England overthink things when it comes to penalties. That's all I can say. They should have won the match in regulation time of course, they were up 1-0 at halftime and should have shut the game down in the second half, but failed to. Sterling should have got a penalty in the second half, but missed out. However, throughout the second half Italy looked the better team. England tried to play and came up short.
Then with penalties, England overwork it. The Rashford attempt had choke written all over it. The other two saves by the Italian goalkeeper were well done, but it was obvious from the body language of the penalty kickers which way they were sending the ball. That made things easier for the Italian goalie.
I should add, the competence of the England manager must be called into question. What was he thinking, choosing a young 19 year old player to take the final penalty kick. The player had come on as a replacement and looked overawed by the occasion. He had one or two touches but never really threatened. To then decide to put the same guy under immense pressure in front of a worldwide audience in the region of two billion, well, that's asking far too much. I doubt anyone could handle it at that age. This is coaching 101, when the chips are down and one last play is needed, you go to old heads with plenty of experience.
England are still trying to end the drought, will this ever end? I'm a Chicago Cubs fan and know curses all too well. That took 71 years to erase and was only accomplished by having the curse transferred to another team due to one of that teams fans making a big mistake. So, England, this could go well beyond 55 years. Depressing I know.
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