Why Sven's England Should Have Won The World Cup

In 2006, and England team packed with stars like Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, and John Terry went into the 2006 as favourites. They exited having never once looked likely to win it. But in 2002, a far humbler, less fancied England emerged from the proverbial 'Group of Death' to suddenly find themselves as the form-team in the tournament.

A bizarre goal against Brazil ultimately saw them eliminated, but Adam Clery looks at that side, as well as the arrival of Sven-Göran Eriksson, and examines why they were suddenly, improbably, genuine World Cup contenders.

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[HHHBFResurrected]

Watching England's 2002 WC games in the school hall.

Oh the nostalgia kick I got hearing that lol

[rikachu]

Let’s hope the lessons are learnt and today’s England aren’t afraid to prioritise playing a balanced team over fitting in the stars.

[acdPnk]

It's an England review but not the one we expected

[Klinsmann]

I remember Sheringham hit the bar against Argentina, an incredible volley after a 40 odd pass build up. Ian Wright said in the analysis "if that was Brazil you'd be creaming" and Linekar had to chime in and say "thanks Ian but this is a lunchtime show" 😂

[kieranbennett]

20:45 Ironically the pokemon tangent perfectly fits this analysis. Those pokemon are all great and flashy at their individual strengths, but at a competitive level they don't synergise that well together. The core of that team is the equivalent of turning up to an international tournament with Gerrard and Lampard in midfield

[Jessie_Pinkman_]

Watching this in 2042 and it still waiting for the analysis video on why Thomas Tuchels 2026 World Cup England campaign was the greatest display of international football talent ever seen.

[CretienOsmondHughes]

Sheringham would have been a great fit for Owen. Sheringham was a provider. Though agreed Heskey (criminally underrated) was a genius move.

[Alexandry]

If England had beaten Brazil then they maybe could have won the rest of it, in the same way that Southgate's team maybe could have won in 2018, 2020, or 2024... but football is rarely that straightforward, so who knows. Once Brazil shut up shop, England had no way to break through; if Turkey had gone defensive in the semis, we could have had the same problem there, and lost it. Germany lost to us badly in the qualifiers, but came good in the World Cup, and could easily have beaten us. We would have dared to dream, but we would still have had two more coin-flip matches and no guarantee of success. I agree it was a good team that could have gone further, but the cruel reality of football is they didn't.

[vietnamesefisheatbananas]

I'd argue Leicester was 442's last hurrah. But other than that, great video!

[nigelee]

For a brief moment, Emile Heskey looked like he was going to be a mainstay for Liverpool and England, then his confidence just evaporated and never came back.

[Enzoblueblood]

I still believe Sven dropped it against Portugal 2004 when, instead of Heskey, he went with Vassel for the injured Rooney.
Up to the point where he got injured, England were dominating the Portuguese because of Rooney’s hold up play. With Vassel and Owen up front Sven went for stretching the pitch which allowed Ronaldo and Figo (later on, Simao) to cheat the FBs forcing England to just hit long balls to the two smallest players on the pitch.
That was a long night and one tournament that got away imo.

[ScottMansfield]

"Keegan thought they were wide open"

That sentence alone should scare anyone. Especially Newcastle fans.

[pichew]

played pokemon red for the first time last year with a team of Blastoise. Flareon, Mr Mime, Victreebel, Marowak and Alakazam

i love seeing tactics from before my time and seeing how everything evolved, it'll treat me well if i do sports data at university ❤

[TheillMadeKnght]

Oh the memories of yore with my old friends Feraligatr, Houndoom, Gengar, Graveler, Espeon, Snorlax

[jamesc]

Arsenal season ticket holder here. I was in the lower East stand for every home game during the Invincibles season and I would argue that we never played 4-4-2 that season at all. It was always a 4-2-3-1. Bergkamp at 10, Pires and Ljungberg as inverted wingers. Vieira and Gilberto as a double pivot with Gilberto dropping into left back whenever Cole raided forward (which was most of the time).

[robwalters]

Venusaur, arcanine, poliwrath, lapras, zapdos, dragonite

[CretienOsmondHughes]

Slightly rose tinted. That Brazil team had Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo up front with Gilberto Silva in the middle and Cafu, Roque Junior and Roberto Carlos at the back. It was miles better than England. Yes England should have utilised its man advantage but when have we been good at moving the ball about patiently to utilise space? (Well in those days we couldn't. We could do it under Robson, Hoddle and Venables)

[link]

I respect your lineup for sure! My Red Version starting VI was Charizard, Kadabra, Zapdos, Vileplume, Gyarados, and Snorlax. Shout out to Butterfree and Dugtrio being early and midgame mainstays. And if I somehow got a Pikachu early on, Snorlax would swap out for a flying like Pidgeot or even Articuno

[Best_game]

This video explains why it is important to get the balance right as opposed to cramming all the 'best' players in. I for one think only one out of the trio of Palmer, Foden and Bellingham need to be in the first 11 and if Kane is playing, have wingers who spread play like Madueke and Gordon or even Watkins who was a winger before he became a striker...

[alperozcan]

I remember that team very well and I've watched every single English national team match between 96 and '06. However I would argue that Brazil was much better and they were also without Emerson who got injured due to training antics pre tournament, he was the best 6 at that time in the world. Scolari got ronaldinho and rivaldo work together, they had the best right and left backs ever and the main man was of course coming back from a nightmare to haunt us all. Brazil would have matched and beaten England every time (let's say 95 out of 100). On the other hand, since we (Turkey) finished third, I would argue that we were the last great 442. Shoutout to Sven, great guy and great manager, rip, always loved him, he deserved the best.