Steven Gerrard is right: the penalty shoot-out is England's biggest barrier to World Cup glory

By Martin Lipton in Laptop with Martin Lipton

Published 11:23 23/02/10

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Fabio Capello probably always knew the biggest hurdle his players will have to clear this summer - but if he did not, Steven Gerrard has just confirmed it.

Gerrard's surprisingly honest admission that he was unable to cope with the pressure of taking his shoot-out penalty against Portugal in the 2006 World Cup shone a light on the extra strain the prospect of sudden-death places on the minds of the England players.

It was not as if Gerrard was a spot-kick virgin. After all, he scored for Liverpool in Istanbul, with everything on the line in the 2005 Champions League Final and has converted countless penalties for his club.

But it is a very different story when players who take the pressure in their stride for their clubs pull on the white shirt with those Three Lions emblazoned on the breast.

The weight of past failure, of the years, now decades of under-achievement since Bobby Moore wiped his hands and lifted the Jules Rimet Trophy into the Wembley air, has long been a significant burden every England squad has carried into tournaments.

Ever since Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle launched their careers as pizza advertisement actors in Turin against Germany in Italia 90, the ghosts have mounted, permanent reminders confronting every squad that travelled to the World Cup or European Championships.

The names of those who could not hold it together under the ultimate test of nerve reads like a who's who of English football.

After Pearce and Waddle there was Gareth Southgate in Euro 96, David Batty and Paul Ince against Argentina two years later, David Beckham and Darius Vassell in Lisbon in 2004 and of course Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Jamie Carragher in Gelsenkirchen.

For all the talk of "next time it will be different", it never is. The story remains the same, the result seemingly pre-ordained, the same anguish and frustration.

Remember how the Germans - who have not missed a single shoot-out spot kick since 1982 - mocked England's status as the worst penalty takers in World Cup history?

First there was the cut out and keep guide in the country's biggest-selling newspaper, with arrows pointing to "the ball" and "the goal" and the message, in English: "Do not forget, the ball must go into the goal. And that is how you win a penalty shoot-out."

Then television pictures of a game between two partially-sighted teams and a penalty being awarded, subsequently skied over the bar, with the commentary switching from German to English and the mocking words

The commentary had been in German, but as the penalty-taker skied the ball over the bar, the language changed: "Ah, the English are still here," cackled the man behind the microphone. "They have not gone home after all."

Like it or not, Capello will have to confront the issue head-on this summer, to get into the minds of his players and cure them of the expectations of inevitable failure which have dogged so many of his predecessors.

Capello, ever the perfectionist, has told his players they will have to practice penalties once the build-up to the tournament commences, even if they have not begun doing that yet.

The problem, of course, is that no matter how many shots you take against David James or Joe Hart on the pitches at the Royal Bafokeng complex, it cannot recreate the pressure and atmosphere inside Johannesburg's Soccer City when Hugo Lloris of France is standing in front of you at around 11.15pm local time on June 2.

History tells us that you normally need to win a shoot-out at some stage if you are to end up as tournament winners.

Look at Germany in 1990, Brazil in 1994, Germany again in 1996, France in 1998, Italy in the last World Cup and Spain in Euro 2008.

Capello's squad has the quality to go all the way but the one element they have not so far shown they have is the mental strength to win under that immense, one-to-one scrutiny.

If they can win one shoot-out, it could prove to be the moment that finally unlocks the minds of England's players, that gives them the essential belief that it is meant to be, the surge of confidence and adrenaline that can take them to the greatest goal of all.

For Capello, making that happen, getting his players in the mental condition required will be the most difficult task of all.

We should not doubt that he can do it. But when a player like Gerrard acknowledges the strain, you realise just how tough a task that will be.

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