Gareth Southgate, The Curse Of Penalty Shootout And Wembley

Gareth Southgate (Twitter @england)

JAKARTA - Gareth Southgate, penalty shootout and Wembley. It feels like these three things when combined will always cause bad memories for the English football public.

Generations past have had bad memories of the combination of the three, when Southgate, England's sixth executioner in a penalty shootout in the Euro 1996 semi-finals, found his execution too close to German goalkeeper Andreas Koepke.

Because of Southgate, the England squad was forced to only watch the Euro 1996 final from the screen at their respective homes, watching Germany win their third title.

Twenty-five years later, the bad memories from the minds of previous generations have not been erased. The combination of Southgate, Wembley, and the penalty shootout again added to the unpleasant memory of the phrase "It's coming home" which was once again just jargon without form.

Wembley, 11 July 2021, Southgate standing on the sidelines of Wembley in the Euro 2020 final penalty shootout again left bad memories for the next generation of England.

Three of Southgate's five executioners failed to find the net from the spot in the penalty shootout, which ended with Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma thumping England's fifth kicker, Bukayo Saka.

Expectations, disappointments and healing wounds

As a country that has always been considered the inventor of modern football and whose league is often recognized as the most competitive competition, those who wear the England jersey are always burdened with high expectations every time they welcome an international tournament.

However, these high expectations have repeatedly resulted in disappointments that have continued for more than half a century since Geoff Hurst's hat-trick in the 1966 World Cup final saw England take home the Jules Rimet trophy.

The same high expectations also fell on Southgate's shoulders when he was entrusted with moving up from under-21 coach to replace Sam Allardyce in charge of the senior national team who resigned because of the FA scandal in 2016.

The success of holding Spain to a 2-2 draw in a friendly, following seven points from three 2018 World Cup qualifiers, convinced the FA to award Southgate a permanent long-term contract.

In his inaugural international tournament, Southgate was able to deliver England to the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup. In that event, Harry Kane became the top scorer with six goals and the Three Lions after a long time were able to conquer the ghost of a penalty shootout.

In the last 16 against Colombia, England won on penalties for the first time in a prestigious tournament since the nightmare of the Euro 1996 semifinals.

Fourth place in the 2018 World Cup is England's best achievement in an international tournament since the semifinals of Euro 1996.

In the inaugural edition of the 2018/19 UEFA Nations League competition, Southgate continued his positive streak in his tenure by bringing England into the top four, despite being beaten by the Netherlands in the semifinals.

Southgate seems to have a long way to go to pay for his failure at Euro 1996, of course with expectations that are increasing day by day.

Gambling for gambling

England returned to the Euro 2020 finals with high expectations, coupled with relatively decent performances to support that hope.

Because England became the most productive team in the qualifying phase through a score of 37 goals, and Kane was once again the top scorer with a collection of 12 goals throughout the Euro 2020 qualifying phase.

In the finals, England has a relatively large advantage, because, despite being held on a pan-continental basis, Euro 2020 - which had to be postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic - will play two semi-finals and a final at England's Wembley.

England qualified for the knockout stages by topping Group D, despite being labeled as the least productive team having scored only three goals among all group winners.

However, the productivity problem was slowly solved with 2-0 wins over Germany and 4-0 over Ukraine which was accompanied by the success of England being the only team with a clean sheet throughout the tournament until the quarter-finals.

Southgate's insistence on playing Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane throughout the tournament has garnered praise from many pundits, including former Three Lions player Alan Shearer.

For, Sterling continued his sharpness for England even though in the latter half of the season his position began to be displaced at Manchester City, while Kane scored the winner over Denmark in the semifinals which led the country to reach the final of the Euros for the first time.

Southgate's gamble was again carried out by using a three-back scheme in the final against Italy and had a positive result because left-back Luke Shaw broke the record for the fastest goal in the Euro final.

Not even two minutes into the game, exactly one minute 57 seconds, Shaw broke into Italy's goal to bring England the lead.

Unfortunately, that advantage was not accompanied by England's ability to dominate the game. Italy appeared more dominant throughout the match until they were able to equalize through Leonardo Bonucci.

The 1-1 draw lasted until normal time ended, sparking small memories of the quick lead that was wasted in the Euro 1996 semi-final against Germany.

In extra-time that remained stalemate, Southgate made another stop in the game by bringing on Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, who appeared to be specially set up for the shootout.

What happened later this gamble actually backfired because Rashford and Sancho were two of the three English executioners who failed to find the ball into the net in the penalty shootout.

Jordan Pickford had ignited England's hopes after he stopped the execution of Italy's fifth executioner, Jorginho's penalty, which should have been the winner.

But it all only culminates in a huge burden that must be placed on the shoulders of Bukayo Saka, the 19-year-old teenager who Southgate assigned as England's fifth executioner.

When Saka's shot was denied by Donnarumma, the combination of Southgate, Wembley and the penalty shoot-out once again left a nightmare that will haunt English football forever.