By Andrew Warshaw
August 9 – England manager Fabio Capello today apologised for the country’s dire showing at the World Cup, admitting that his players were both physically and mentally below-par.
At his first news conference since England’s 4-1 trouncing by Germany in the second round – their worst ever result in the finals – Capello said the players simply were not able, because of an energy-sapping season, to perform at the same level as they did during the qualification competition.
“When you play a World Cup competition, you have to arrive in really good physical condition,” said the Italian.
“Another thing really important thing is the mind of the players.
“We played not with confidence but with fear.
“The mind is important but I don’t know what you do to improve the minds of the players.”
Using Brazil’s capitulation against Holland as an example of how a team’s confidence can evaporate in the course of a game – the South Americans were totally dominant before going down 2-1- Capello said the disallowed goal by Frank Lampard could have changed the entire outcome of the tournament, let alone the result against Germany.
He also played down reports of a communication problem with his new-look England squad.
Paul Robinson and Wes Brown both retired from international football at the weekend just after being called up for Wednesday’s friendly against Hungary at Wembley.
“I accept the decisions,” said Capello.
“You have to accept what they want to do.”
Capello remains convinced, after being retained by the Football Association, that he is the right man for the job.
“When you lose something, the experience is very important, you have to understand what really happened and understand if I, or we, made mistakes and, from that, improve,” he said. “
Everyone makes mistakes.
“I think I can do something for this team because my experience is good and we can improve more.”
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