Let's pray for an English redemption

The long wait has in all likelihood turned longer and is now all set to cross half a century. For 50 long years the English have been waiting for their moment and it just keeps eluding them. The exploits of Geoff Hurst and Bobby Moore in 1966 are now distant memories revived every four years when the English travel to the World Cup. And every time the hopes are dashed.

The night before Wayne Rooney scored his first World Cup goal after 700 plus minutes on the pitch across three World Cups, all of England must have felt redemption was not far away. It was Rooney's tryst with salvation. Yet it was the talismanic Luiz Suarez who put the ultimate stamp on the match and all but sealed England's fate. Come to think of it England wasn't bad. Clearly they weren't like the Spanish. They weren't outplayed or annihilated. And they kept trying.

Be it the mercurial Daniel Sturridge who has a very good future ahead of him or the diminutive Raheem Sterling, England had enough on the park to give their supporters hope.

And they had Rooney. It was evident to all that Rooney desperately wanted that goal and was giving it his all.

From that brilliant free kick which missed the goal by a few centimetres to being denied by the crossbar when he leapt above the Uruguayan defence to head the ball home, Rooney was doing all he could for England.

But clearly it wasn't enough with Suarez making the stage his own.

Two fantastic strikes and now Roy Hodgson's future is in question.

Gerrard and Lampard won't be around in 2018 and chances are Rooney won't be too. England's best came up second best for the second time running raising serious questions about the country's singular passion. What ails English football?

With the very best league and the very best clubs why can't England progress far in the biggest football stage of all? How is it that they fail time and again? Is it the pressure of expectations or is it the relentless media attention that creates the problem for the talented Englishmen?

Whatever the reason the English only have themselves to blame for this plight. Several chances were squandered and several opportunities lost. Possession is not enough in a football match for it doesn't guarantee a win. Spain knows this better than most. England dominated the game for much of the match but wasn't able to score the winning goal. Rooney alone could have scored three or four times. But the what if question has never won a team a match. And the what if question will not be good enough for England.

The English FA will perhaps appoint another committee to look into the causes of defeat. The media will castigate Hodgson and his team. But will it all help? Will it help redeem the ignominy of not winning the World Cup for 50 plus years? England does have its own example to fall back on. In 1996 they hit rock bottom in the Olympics. In 19 97 the lottery funding kicked in and solid ground research was done to reinvigorate English sport. 15 years down the line England finished London 2012 with 29 gold medals, an unprecedented haul in British sporting history.

Suddenly the country was a multi sporting nation. If it could be done at Olympic level one wonders why it can't be done to English football? Especially when the EPL is touted the best league in the world with the best talent wanting to play in it.

For the sake of the beautiful game FIFA needs a strong England. Just like a strong India is a must in cricket, a strong England is a serious necessity in football. For the sake of all their supporters and for the game itself, Rooney and his team need to beat Costa Rica. May be they won't make it further but at least the hope will still be alive that they can yet do it in Russia in 2018.