SO THE glorious World Cup campaign ended with a whimper not a bang as England's new found confidence evaporated in the Shizuoka sun.

Not even the fact that Brazil had dressed up as Scotland rather than in their fearsome golden shirts was enough to give Sven's men the belief they could beat the Brazilians.

Before the game I did not mind the prospect of England losing, provided they gave a good account of themselves.

Sadly, they didn't!

Worse things apparently happen at sea but not much worse than what happened to our Seaman.

The Arsenal keeper has served club and country incredibly well but when he does finally hang-up his pony-tail two errors will dominate any analysis of his career.

Allowing Nayim to score from half-way in the 1994 Cup Winner's Cup final and then his mistake from the free kick yesterday.

It may be harsh but it is a fact of life - you don't get many shots at winning the World Cup and England have wasted a great chance.

The fact he was so distraught after the game showed he knew the enormity of what he had done.

The gulf in technical ability was shown in the way that once Ronaldinho was sent off it was often the boys in blue that looked to have the extra man.

Defeat by Argentina four years ago was agony but you were at least left with the feeling that they could not have done any more.

Today it looked as if the team had wisely been told to take it easy and conserve energy but that was not the way to play when trailing with time running out.

Where was the urgency, the thrust, the dynamism?

Sadly it appeared to be confined to the pubs, clubs, offices and homes back in England.

England never went up to third gear, let alone the fifth gear that might have unsettled the Brazilian defence.

Only once did Lucio show the frailty that had been talked about so much in the build-up to the game but that was partly due to the fact that England never put enough pressure on them.

It was almost as if the enormity of who they were playing and what the prize was suddenly got to the players - "Flipping heck, we are playing Brazil and we could win the World Cup."

It was therefore with a heavy heart I watched Germany take on the States, not knowing who I wanted to win.

I am not sure it was fair to have a ref called Dallas in charge of the States but at least we did not hear the theme tune after the national anthems.

The fact that Germany, beaten 5-1 at home by England last September, are now in the semi-finals hardly fills me with glee but here is a curious fact.

The two most successful countries in World Cup history, Brazil and Germany, have never met in the finals.

What price they come face to face in Yokohama a week tomorrow?

At least the Germans progress means I can keep going with my "Frings ain't what they used to be" line everytime the No22 gets the ball.

Sadly, with England coming home, things ARE exactly what they used to be!