Soccer: England dodge fans as they arrive home

England's World Cup soccer team flew back from Japan into Heathrow airport yesterday, dodging hundreds of waiting fans and failing to talk to reporters.

After a 12-hour flight, the team merely posed briefly for photographers on the steps of their Boeing 777 after it drew to a halt away from terminal buildings.

Airport workers cheered and waved red-and-white St George's flags as the team, led by coach Sven-Goran Eriksson and captain David Beckham made their way to five waiting buses on the tarmac.

Beckham grinned at the crowd and even goalkeeper David Seaman, whose second half error sealed England's fate in the 2-1 defeat by Brazil on Friday, managed a smile.

But fans waiting in the airport terminal to welcome home their heroes were disappointed and British newspapers were scathing about the low-key return.

"Our heroes are home - but where was the heroes' welcome?" asked the News of the World.

"The Football Association was wrong to insist our boys skulked back into Heathrow on a night plane," it said, adding that Prime Minister Tony Blair should hold a spectacular party with Eriksson's men as guest of honour.

The Sunday People said: "The England team were a credit to themselves, their families and their country. They played their lion hearts out for us and today our grateful hearts are with them. Happy homecoming."

The Sunday Times reported that a YouGov online poll it commissioned had found 86 percent of those surveyed thought Eriksson should stay on as team coach.

- REUTERS

nzherald.co.nz/fifaworldcup

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