No mercy as Houghton leads dominant England

Football - No mercy as Houghton leads dominant England - Steph Houghton's team are crushing their World Cup qualifying group - and she doesn’t understand Germany's wish not to humiliate Brazil. 

After going 5-0 up in the World Cup semi-final, Mats Hummels has since revealed that the Germany team did not want to humiliate the hosts in their own back yard.

New England captain Houghton doesn’t understand that attitude. She’s been part of an intensely successful World Cup qualifying campaign that so far has resulted in 38 goals scored (and one conceded) in their eight games.

Steph Houghton is leading England to next summer's World Cup in Canada (The FA)

“If you’re 5-0 up at half-time, you have to go out there and get more,” she says, in a tone that doesn’t invite argument. “Yes, you respect your opponents – but you do that by looking at them, seeing where their strengths are and working out how to deal with them - and then exploiting their weaknesses.”

That kind of resolute, unsympathetic toughness isn’t surprising from a player who established her career at the all-conquering Arsenal and forced her way in to become a crucial part of Hope Powell’s England squad.

Now, under new manager Mark Sampson, she’s been handed the skipper’s armband, replacing long-serving Casey Stoney.

“It does seem like a new era, of course,” says Houghton. “Hope was there for a long time, so it’s going to feel like that. I’m loving every minute of it, to be honest. It’s a great honour. I’m still quite young as a captain so it’s a bit overwhelming at times.”

One of the criticisms that was levelled at Powell prior to her departure was that she relied heavily on selecting a trusted core of players rather than seeking to pick the best available squad.

Sampson, however, seems to be very intent on choosing his squad according to form. That has led to a call-up for the likes of Birmingham’s Jo Potter, after an absence of seven years, in preparation for the upcoming friendly against Sweden, to be played at Hartlepool United’s Victoria Park.

Pia Sundhage’s team are likely to have few weaknesses for Houghton and her colleagues to exploit. Even in a friendly, they will, however, prove a sterner challenge than England’s recent opponents in competition.

“We need that kind of test going into the World Cup,” she says, and then adds quickly, “assuming we qualify.”

It’s hard to envisage a situation where they wouldn’t, with one point required to seal their place in next summer’s tournament in Canada and two matches left - one versus Wales in Cardiff, and finally another away game, against Montenegro, recipients of a 9-0 thrashing back in April.

And after such a dominant display during qualifying, expectations for England in 2015 will be high.

Yet they were also high last summer when Powell’s team disappointed so drastically at the European Championships, taking just a single point from their group stage, and forcing the manager’s departure.

It was particularly galling bearing in mind the high hopes for potential success following Team GB’s impressive displays in the London 2012 Olympics, when Houghton was the poster girl for the team and across tabloid front pages after scoring the winner against Brazil.

“You have to take the rough with the smooth,” she says. “The Olympics were so successful, and the nation does expect – you see that with the men’s team. We’re desperate to put things right.”

So as Houghton mentioned, the men’s team’s failure at the World Cup means that imminent international footballing success now depends on the women.

She laughs. “Yep. No pressure!” ( Eurosport )

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World Cup champion Germany expects to keep machine rolling into Euro 2016

World Cup champion Germany expects to keep machine rolling into Euro 2016 – There are different levels of satisfaction in winning the World Cup. It is the peak of rapture for every victor, the greatest feeling in soccer, the pinnacle of a career, in many cases the end of a long and exhausting journey.

But for others it is merely the beginning, the fuel for more success, more nights like these, more chances to show they are the best. In the heady moments following Sunday's World Cup final, this was how it seemed for Germany, a team that was delighted with collecting the trophy but by no means surprised by it. It's a team that fully believes it can form a dynasty, much in the same way Spain reigned over soccer right up until its first game of this tournament.

Substitute Mario Goetze was the hero with the only goal against Argentina at the Maracana Stadium and Joachim Loew served as the wily architect of triumph, yet everyone in the Germany set-up has his place and knows it; and, most important of all, executes it with diligence and commitment. 

Mario Gotze became a national hero in Germany. (Reuters) 

Loew talks about his program as a consistent action in progress, not a peaking roller coaster defined by the rigid nature of major tournament scheduling. Now that Germany is at the top, he wants it to stay there.

"This was a result of 10 years of preparation and tough work," Loew said. "And a team spirit which is unbelievable. This team has a marvelous technical capacity and they have the willpower to carry this out. For that reason we made it today and are proud."

Loew has been with Germany since his days as an assistant to Jurgen Klinsmann in the run-up to the 2006 World Cup and took sole command following that tournament. It is an extraordinarily long run for a national team leader but you can't think that he will step down now, there might be a nationwide revolt if he tried to.

Next up is the European Championships in France in 2016 and on the basis of this past month, Germany will be an immediate and automatic favorite for it. And why not?

So many things point to an embarrassment of riches when it comes to talent, no expression of that greater than Loew's "boy wonder" Goetze being implemented as a substitute when he would likely start for any other team in the tournament.

It is not an old team by any means either; Goetze, Toni Kroos, Manuel Neuer and Mats Hummels might be hitting their peak when the World Cup rolls its merry way to Russia four years from now.

Most important of all, it is a team that has found a system that no one has an answer for. It borrows heavily from the Spain team that began its glut of success at Euro 2008 and passed its way to perfection at three straight major tournaments. But even if Germany was not the sole inventor of the style that it used to pummel Portugal, France, Brazil and Argentina by a collective margin of 13 goals to one, then it deserves credit for being the only team able to effectively copy it, or a version of it.

Passing efficiency isn't the sexiest thing in soccer, neither is seamless teamwork, but in the modern game they are the most important factors. That is why Cristiano Ronaldo has been idle these past three weeks while Germany has the party of parties awaiting it in Berlin on Tuesday.

It hasn't always been easy. Germany was good, seriously good, at all the three tournaments Spain won, but fell short in one final and two semis. Loew had to convince his players to keep believing in the system.

"We have made constant progress even though we didn't make this ultimate step before," Loew added. "We believed in it and worked a lot for it. This team deserves it.

"In my time over these 10 years they have been with us, we were disappointed once or twice, but we have always played good football. We showed the best performance of all teams for seven matches and that is why we are so happy."

Happiness is one thing, contentment is another. This German machine isn't content yet. It wants more, and everyone else should watch out. ( sports.yahoo.com )

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