ENGLAND WILL fly to Brittany today with something more meaningful in mind than a spot of summer jousting. Having won in Poland for the first time in 31 years, their prospects of returning to France for the 1998 World Cups are now real indeed.
On Wednesday England meet Italy in Nantes in a four nation tournament which will take them on to Montpellier for Saturday's encounter with the French and then to Paris to play Brazil tomorrow week. Important though these fixtures are as part of a learning process, they are already dwarfed by the growing significance of England's closing World Cup qualifier in Rome on October 11th.
Before England beat the Poles in Chorzow on Saturday the dogged insistence of coach Glenn Hoddle that defeating the Italians on their own territory, despite losing 1-0 to them at Wembley, was a realistic ambition tended to be greeted with a patronising chuckle. How naive could a man be?
The likelihood of an English victory in the Stadio Olimpico this autumn is still remote. But after what happened in the Slaski Stadium, following the earlier World Cup victories in Moldova and Georgia, at least the proposition can now be discussed with a straight face.
It is not simply that an increasingly dispirited Poland team were beaten by goals from Alan Shearer and, during stoppage time, Teddy Sheringham, with much admirable defending by Hoddle's players in between. If a relatively inexperienced England side can remind Poles, of all people, of the importance of solidarity then who is to say that Hoddle's players cannot bring the lesson Borussia Dortmund taught Juventus in the European Cup final that nothing is certain home to Italy.
England's confidence is now as high as it was alter Holland had been routed 4-1 in the 1996 European Championship. In World Cup terms it is based on something more substantial because Hoddle's victories have been achieved in more demanding circumstances. Even Terry Venables might have balked at being asked to win in Silesia after closing Paul Gascoigne on the quarter hour and seeing Shearer miss a penalty on the stroke of half time.
The debate about Gascoigne's continued presence in the England team was adjourned once this wretchedly unlucky footballer had been helped from the field alter receiving a badly gashed thigh in a tackle with Krzysztof Bukalski. Shearer's penalty, given when the England captain was pulled down by Adam Ledwon, struck the foot of a post. Again the matter was not discussed.
"There was no mention of the penalty at half time by Alan, myself, or anyone else," said Hoddle afterwards. "We virtually said `that's history, we can't turn the clock back'."
Shearer's continuing contribution to England's World Cup hopes is immense and not merely because of his goals. "Defending when we've been on the attack has been a major problem in our football for years," said Hoddle. Shearer brings to England the quality of defending from the front, a lack of which was largely responsible for Graham Taylor's failure to qualify for the 1994 tournament.
The way England defended at the back in Chorzow, with Gareth Southgate, Sol Campbell and Gary Neville showing judgment and discipline which minimised the effect of losing Tony Adams's experience, was a satisfying aspect of their victory. True, the ball was seldom brought out of defence with much subtlety and indeed Southgate was content, for the most part, to hump it upfield. But Poland were rarely allowed the space they had been given at Wembley.
What was equally rewarding for Hoddle, his team and the England supporters was that the opening goal stemmed from practice at catching the opposition on the break. "We'd given them an exercise in training where they had to get the hall into the back of the net within 10 seconds of winning it," Hoddle explained. "I think the seed's been planted."
Not only planted but producing an early bloom. After five minutes the ball broke to Robert Lee from a Polish corner. He quickly found Paul Ince whose pass to Shearer, baring through a large gap on the right, recalled the ball Andreas Moller played to Lars Ricken for Dortmund's third goal against Juventus.
Shearer's finish might have been less spectacular but the finality of the shot he tucked into the far corner of the net cast a depression over Poland which deepened to despair once Piotr Nowak, their captain and thought processor, had been carried off on the hour. The nearest thing to a Polish goal was when Southgate hooked the ball away from the tar post after Nowak, Jozwiak and Bukalski had broken through towards the end of the first half.
England's second goal was a casual afterthought. Sheringham's pass caught Poland pushing up too late, Lee was clear and onside and after the Newcastle man had rounded the goalkeeper he unselfishly offered Sheringham the chance to finish what he had begun.
The win has left England a point behind Italy. If Hoddle's team beat Moldova at Wembley on September 10th a game Ince will miss after a second booking - and the Italians slip up in Georgia the same evening then England will go to Rome as Group Two leaders.
An important side effect of winning in Poland is that England are now even better placed to qualify automatically as the best of the European runners up, but Hoddle has no thought of finishing second to anyone just now. "We've always said we can win this group," he insisted. "And as long as we're professional against Moldova it looks as if it's going to be a titanic battle of a game in Rome."
Certainly on Saturday such confidence looked highly contagious.
. France's inspirational midfielder Didier Deschamps warned tiredness could sap the strength of him and Juventus colleague Zinedine Zidane during the Tournoi de France. "Physically and mentally, it will be very difficult to pick ourselves up for this event," said Deschamps, who is set to skipper the side against Brazil at Lyon tomorrow.
