England over-rated says Leo

The Dutchman has observed that England, controversial World Cup winners in 1966 at home, are always over-rated going into major tournaments and have failed to repeat their success of 40 years ago.

Beenhakker made the stinging statements when he addressed members of the media following the Soca Warriors defeat against Wales match in Graz, Austria, on Saturday.

Most of the journalists were from the United Kingdom and Beenhakker reminded them that England was not the only team to consider going into the tournament.

The former Real Madrid coach said TT’s first concern were the Swedes on June 10 in Dortmund — their opening Group “B” match.

“They always have fantastic players. England are one of the favourites for the World Cup because of the talents they have but they have to show it. England have fantastic players, one of the strongest leagues in the world and a population of 50 million,” said Beenhakker.

“These guys should be prepared for everything but they never win. All I see with my eyes wide open is a team that doesn’t perform when it comes to the World Cup and the European Championships,” Beenhakker said.

He was then asked about TT’s preparation for England.

“You are talking about England? Everything is centred around England and our finals begin against Sweden and we have 14 days to go and we have two matches to play before that.

“By the time we play Sweden we will be better than today and if that is good enough I don’t know at this stage but once again we will be very well prepared. We play England in our second match and by that time we will know what we have to do,” he said.

He also fielded questions about whether TT were merely satisfied with qualification based on the reaction of fans back home and if in fact their aim was to even earn a point at the World Cup.

“Our idea is to win the first match and the second match and then go on. Any professional works in the same way. They prepare for the next match and I have spoken about the difference between training matches and the real matches,” he said. “A team does not travel to Germany with the idea that we are going to lose a match. We know exactly where we are and we have our feet on the ground.

“We understand our situation that we are the smallest nation ever participating and that we play great players and so but you are going to tell me that as coach, or as a staff, a squad they go to Germany with the idea of ‘Oh we don’t have to win anything there.’ Then what are we going to do there?”

“We have the same ambitions, courage and hope of all the teams. That’s the way we think and that’s the way we work or else we stay home and watch TV or send Wales,” he said, causing much laughter from the audience at the post match conference.