Digesting England by the pound

Last Wednesday the English national soccer team were eliminated from next year's European cup after losing 3-2 to Croatia. This means that the national team of the country that invented the sport isn't one of the 16 best teams in their continent. It's kind of like the USA not qualifying for the basketball competition in the Pan Am Games.

One day later, national coach Steve McLaren and his assistant were fired. The English media and public are still under the impression that they're a major soccer power even though they haven't won an international tournament since the 1966 World Cup. There was lots of talk in the media about how their players just didn't get the opportunity to play at the international level because there are too many "foreigners" playing in the English Premier League. I don't get the opportuntity to play international soccer either. Probably because I'm not good enough.

It seems like England is having a rough time dealing with not being a soccer power, even though they've never really been one. They're usually at least good enough to make it to the finals at least. The last time the English team was eliminated from a major competition was for the 1994 World Cup in the USA. I remember wondering why England and France weren't playing in that World Cup, and was surprised to discover that they hadn't qualified. I thought those countries always made it to the World Cup.

After their elimination from Euro 2008, there's been talk of limiting foreign players in the English Premier League to help develop their domestic talent. I'm a big fan of the EPL and think setting up a domestic quota would kill the league quicker than anything. It's like trying to make Americans better at baseball or basketball by limiting international players in MLB or the NBA. In order to be the best, you need to be able to compete against the best.

The problem isn't that there are too many foreign players on the top teams, it's that there aren't enough top level English players to field a competitive national team. And the solution to that is to make the players better. It just seems so obvious!