Biggest faux pas in football history

Imagine the euphoria and the carnivalesque beginning to overwhelm the world when we held mighty Sweden to a goal-less draw. Surely, this was beyond our wildest expectations, for even England had not beaten Sweden in 38 years.

I thought, therefore, that the match against England might have been viewed by our esteemed coach as the biggest challenge in our group. For a multiplicity of reasons, then, I was looking forward to seeing our best team selected for this most important fixture.

The faux pas? Sitting on the bench for all of 90 minutes was arguably the best playmaker the Caribbean had produced in the last decade. The nomenclature of “the Little Magician” had not been arbitrarily given to Russell Latapy. He had earned it by the pyrotechnics of his play. If coach Beenhakker had been serious about winning this fateful encounter with England, then sometime after half-time, the idea of throwing our trump card into the arena would have entered his head. This was the opportune moment when time stood still.

Eriksson saw the moment, and risked his own injured ace, Rooney. Eriksson won. Beenhakker should at least acknowledge his faux pas. The world is looking on.