England expects it is their turn to win

England expects. Even that two-word affirmation carries more than an echo of the military past that sadly seems to permeate so much discussion before a World Cup encounter with Germany, but it is true. England expects.

The players expect, too. The nucleus of thirtysomethings and late twentysomethings within Fabio Capello’s squad has never, in the players’ lifetimes, known anything but misery at the hands of German opponents in the knockout stages of leading tournaments, from the early memories of the 1990 World Cup to the Euro ’96 defeat that came as many of them were taking their first steps towards stardom. But they maintain that, in the unlikely setting of Bloemfontein tomorrow afternoon, it will be different.

It would not be hard, on the basis of performances in this World Cup, to dismiss England as dysfunctional no-hopers and Germany, with the beguiling young talents of Thomas Müller and Mesut Özil, as one of the top four teams in the tournament, along with Argentina, Brazil and Holland.

So why does it feel, after England scraped into the knockout stages with downbeat draws against the United States and Algeria and a fairly prosaic victory over Slovenia, that this is England’s turn to overcome Germany?

Joe Cole predicted something similar the other day, saying pointedly that “I feel this is our time”, and it was an attitude reinforced yesterday by David James as the goalkeeper shrugged at the mention of Özil, apologised to a German journalist that his “name-recollection skills are next to disgraceful” and proceeded to declare:

“I genuinely think we’re going to win because I think we’re a better team than Germany.”

A better team? This is highly debatable, given that Capello’s side have hardly resembled a cohesive unit since a resounding 5-1 victory over Croatia last September, whereas a young Germany team have developed the “Teamgeist”, or spirit, that comes from having six members of the squad that won the European Under-21 Championship in highly impressive style in Sweden last summer.

England were the team they beat in the final — Özil running the show during a magnificent 4-0 victory — but only two players, Joe Hart and James Milner, have made the step up to Capello’s squad.

There are plenty of reasons to be fearful for the long-term future of England, with Capello reflecting the reluctance of many Barclays Premier League managers to make any commitment to blooding young talent.

Capello’s 23-man squad is the oldest in this World Cup, with an average age of 28 years and six months and with only six players under the age of 27. By contrast, Joachim Löw, the Germany coach, has named a squad with an average age of 25 years and three months, with 18 of their 23 players under the age of 27 — among them the Bayern Munich trio of Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski, who have a combined total of 221 caps.