England's women follow traditional path

The men do it all the time, the youngsters did it a couple of weeks ago, and now it's the women's turn.

I'm talking about their failure to grasp a tournament by the scruff of the neck - and actuall win the first game.

At last year's World Cup England's men took an early lead only to end up drawing against USA 1-1 (a match they were expected to win). Although they qualified from the group the stumble meantr that they had to face Germany in the first knock-out match and they lost 4-1.

At the recent Under-21 European Championship the men actually did rather well to draw 1-1 with Spain in their opening game, but they then failed to beat the Ukraine (a match they were expected to win) and went out with a defeat to the Czech Republic.

And now the women are doing the same. They drew their opening World Cup match on Monday, 1-1 with Mexico (a match they were expected to win) , and now face a 'must-win' game against New Zealand tomorrow.

Sorry to be cynical, but I can already read the headlines ...