The English Revolution 2007

Those who think England's failure to qualify for the 2008 European Championships is a matter for English football alone are mistaken.  England's failure to generate consistently effective, creative, attacking football against Croatia at Wembley on Wednesday night is symptomatic of football's failure worldwide to do this very same.

Consider Croatia, England's conquerors at Wembley.  They flattered to deceive.  The first Croatian goal was more reminiscent of a back pass than a shot, but because the England goalkeeper was a rookie paralysed by fear, he failed to get his body behind the ball and let it bounce into the net.  A lucky goal.

The second Croatian goal again owed as much to England players as it did Croatian ones, with lazy English defenders mistakenly relying on the offside rule to excuse their own failure to pick up the Croatian runner.  And the England goalkeeper again failed to even attempt basic goalkeeping technique like diving at the feet of the Croatian scorer - instead Carson stood like a statue, merely offering a token half-step forward as he was rounded easily.

The third Croatian goal was a fine shot from twenty five yards.  It happened because the English defenders didn't offer any pressure to the scorer at any point, allowing him all the time and space he needed to 'set' himself comfortably before firing undisturbed into the bottom corner of the English net.   Again, the English goalkeeper made no real effort  at pushing the long distance shot around the post, as many other goalkeepers would have done, easily.

Croatia are the team that lost two nil to Macedonia last week.  Football has levelled down, not up.  No country in the world has a coaching system that works.  This is not in the least surprising.  All national coaching systems throughout the world are founded upon a scientific fallacy.  They all treat 'weight' as a horizontal force in the movement of a football.  They're all wrong and, consequently, so is their coaching.

Daly's Law Coaching is the only coaching system anywhere in the world that trreats weight in the movement of the ball as the ball's vertical 'drop' velocity due to gravity.  This, believe it or not, affects every movement and manipulation of the ball throughout every game.  If you get this fundamental element wrong in your coaching system, you have a dysfunctional coaching system.  This is the case, not just with the English coaching system, but with every other coaching system in the world, including that of Croatia.

Are we going to see an inspiring European Championships?  No, we're not.  It's going to be the obscenely boring last World Cup all over again, and the World Cup before that and the World Cup before that, as well, of course, as the equally uninspiring European Championships of the last however many years.

After last night's failure against Croatia at Wembley, there can be no excuse whatsoever for delaying full FA adoption of Daly's Law Coaching at all levels and in all areas, including the England National Team.

Bring on the English revolution.  Now.

Terry Daly