Having taken the oath of allegiance as a new American citizen last year, I’ve made a mild effort to care less about the failings of my old country, England. But the oath requires only that “I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject.” It doesn’t demand that I sacrifice my repeatedly forlorn hope that England will again win the World Cup.
That would be a bridge too far. I was 9 years old when England won in 1966, and my brothers and I gloried in that triumph over what was then West Germany. Every four years since, we’ve been disappointed as England stumbled at hurdles and never again returned to the final.
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This year’s failure in the semifinal was worse than others, although like them it was self-inflicted. England struck first and was 1-0 up early in the second half with a goal by its lightning-fast winger, Anthony Gordon. The team had not had quite as much possession as the reigning world champions, Argentina, but by spreading themselves over the whole field, England’s players were able to orchestrate an open passing game, retain control for sustained periods, and threaten to lance through the Argentine defense. Thus arrayed, England forced Argentina to keep players back in defense and throw fewer into attack.
But in an appalling tactical blunder, England’s coach, Thomas Turchel, took Gordon and other fast attacking players off the field after taking the lead and substituted them with defenders to create an impenetrable wall at the back and do nothing but protect the England goal. His plan was simply to cling to a slender lead and hope to rebuff attacks for more than the remaining 30 to 40 minutes.
This virtually eliminated the chance of England scoring a second goal — they hardly tried — and they sacrificed most of their possession, allowing the Argentines to flow into attack. Letting the most potent team in the world pepper your goal for 30 to 40 minutes without them needing to fear a counterattack is a recipe for disaster. England has served it up before in other quadrennial disasters, but perhaps never in a way so sickeningly doomed as this time. Argentina scored two excellent goals, and England will take disappointment home rather than the trophy.
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The game is a metaphor for other fields of human endeavor, particularly politics and national security. You do not prevent attacks, but invite them if all you do is defend yourself without the threat of retaliation and counterattack. Your opponent must be made to know that you will hit back. If you retreat into a defensive crouch, if all your enemy needs to worry about is that his own attacks may fail, but not that you will mount any that can succeed, if you cling only to a marginal advantage and do not try to increase your domination, your antagonist has only one incentive — to goad and harry and strike again and again.
Any nation that wants to be respected and any civilization that wants to survive must, like a World Cup team, have the confidence not just to defend itself but also to champion its own ideas, history, economy, mores, traditions, and systems of government. A strong defense is necessary. But an attack makes it stronger.
