Fred De Jong: Bring on 2006 - a ray of hope for devastated England fans

English fans will be disappointed their World Cup heroes have gone. But rather than look back at what might have been, they should be looking ahead to the 2004 European Championships and beyond that the 2006 World Cup.

With only David Seaman and Teddy Sheringham and a couple of bench players certain to quit internationally, coach Sven Goran Eriksson has the nucleus of young players who will continue to perform very well. In the next four years England will be a real force.

I'm sure that is part of the reason Eriksson took the job. You don't move into one of the highest-pressure jobs in the world if you don't think you can achieve something. He obviously looked at what squad he could build over four years and decided there was enough emerging talent to put together a winning team.

While many will be disappointed England have gone, just as many will be glad Brazil are still in. They showed they were a good step ahead of England, even in a 10 v 11 situation, when they retained possession and controlled the tempo of the match.

Their coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, also showed how astute he was when he took off Ronaldo to bring on a player who wanted to keep the ball and run the clock down after England had surrendered the match to what only can be classed as a schoolboy error by Seaman.

Ronaldinho was not shooting for goal, but Seaman should have saved it.

But then Ronaldinho was cruelly sent off following another questionable refereeing decision and the pattern of the game changed.

As many coaches will tell you, it is not easy playing against 10 players, but England lacked the adventure and commitment to find a way back.

Looking ahead to the semifinals, you would have to say Brazil are a given finalist.

While many will point to their first-up come-from-behind win over Turkey and say it should again be close, Brazil have the advantage of having played them already.

There will be no element of surprise this time. Much will again depend on Turkey's Hasan Sas. He has shown out as a real playmaker - something England did not have when they went down to Brazil.

The second semifinal should be a different story. I think this will be very close.

The Germans should be at full strength and need to be against the South Koreans, who will again have overwhelming support.

The United States showed how to exploit the Germans with fantastic pace on the flanks. The Koreans will be aware of this and Oliver Kahn, the German keeper, will need to put in another top performance.

The longer the game continues the more the Koreans will come into it - as they did against Italy and Spain. I can also see them attacking reasonably freely early on, but they have to be aware they were troubled at times by Portugal in their last group game even when the Portuguese were down to nine men.

Italy and Spain were much better sides than South Korea, but did not win. That, sadly, rests fairly and squarely with the referees and linesmen.

nzherald.co.nz/fifaworldcup

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