What ball did Irwin let bounce in the box against Holland in 94?
The first goal was a fuck up by Terry Phelan who let a ball bounce on the right wing and then tried to head it back to Bonner from nearly the halfway line. Overmars took off and squared it to Bergkamp, who scored. The second was a waltz from Wim Jonk that Bonner failed to hold.
Are the footix incorrectly remembering the Mexico game where he failed to deal with a ball played across, but outside, the box leading to Garciaās second goal?
For me 0-0 at home to Poland on Matchday 4 of 6 was the real damage.
England played Turkey twice on Matchdays 4 and 5 and we needed to match their results, which were always going to be wins. We didnāt do that at all.
Had we held on for the win in Poland, Poland would have been out and England would probably have beaten them.
As it was, Poland went into the final matchday with a squeak of a chance - they would have qualified had they won and we didnāt.
We were screwed by the referee in that game though. At 1-0 to Poland halfway through the second half Chris Woods absolutely scythed down a Polish attacker, took the legs from him, and it looked a certain penalty, but inexplicably was not given. England would hardly have come back from 2-0 down.
Houghton at Wembley with about seven or eight minutes left was the big chance. It was gilt edged and he fluffed it. Donāt remember a huge amount of the specifics about the Poland home game. Their goalkeeper, a guy named Wandzik, did have a good game but my general recollection is we huffed and puffed a lot and didnāt create a huge amount. We were always playing catch up after that especially when England went to Turkey and won later that day with a pig of a goal by Dennis Wise.
That campaign left a lot of regrets because performance wise Ireland were much the better team over the group but couldnāt put the ball in the net when it was needed, or keep it out when needed. England were already showing signs of a systemic malaise under Graham Taylor. Our away performances were all excellent but those draws in Wembley and Poznan needed to be converted into wins, as well as the home game with Poland.
'92 should have been the sweet spot between the 1990 and 1994 teams when we were at our strongest. Could have gone very deep in that tournament.
