Moscow: As the fans dispersed from Moscow’s Spartak Stadium, Gareth Southgate shared a special moment with his wife, Alison, daughter Mia, 19, and 15-year-old son Flynn. He hugged them tightly after a win that perhaps signified more than simply a passage through to the World Cup quarter-final. At its most basic level, it could be viewed as redemption 22 years in the making.
Before this World Cup run, Southgate was remembered — at least by the masses — for missing a penalty at Wembley against Germany. “It will never be off my back, sadly,” he said. “That’s something that will live with me for ever but today is a special moment for this team. It’ll hopefully give belief to the generations of players that will follow. We always have to believe in what is possible in life and not be hindered by history or expectations. I think these young players are showing that. They’re enjoying the tournament, and we’re looking forward now to the quarter-finals.”
Deflecting the praise on to his team is something Southgate has been keen to do throughout the World Cup campaign. But his own personal trauma of missing a penalty in a European Championship semi-final at home has informed the way he has prepared his team for the possibility of facing spotkicks.
Southgate admits to still being tormented by the penalty miss, which came just nine caps into a 55-match international career. In his 2003 book about his playing career, ‘Woody and Nord’ written as a co-autobiography with his friend and former teammate Andy Woodman — Southgate said he felt his inexperience told. He felt Andreas Kopke, the Germany goalkeeper, was able to read his intentions when they faced one other.
He did not want his players to feel so vulnerable.
“I’ve learned a million things from that day and the years that followed it,” he said this week. “When something goes wrong in your life, it doesn’t finish you and you should become braver, knowing that you’ve got to go for things in life and don’t regret because you didn’t try to be as good as you might be.”
They already had their five designated penalty-takers drawn up and the back-up options should the shootout have continued past that number. In the event, of England’s penalty-takers on Tuesday night, only Jordan Henderson missed. It meant that after a dismal record — with one win in seven major tournament shootouts — they tasted victory again.
Whether all the preparing was decisive in England winning their first World Cup penalty shootout in four attempts will never be known, but it certainly didn’t do any damage.
