Being expectant is a horrible state of mind in the context of football. There is no added bonus to it. Either you get what you believe you are owed, or you are left bitterly disappointed when the England team fails to fulfill their potential. Objectively, expecting an England win against Uruguay is expecting the best possible outcome. Anything less and the expectation has created disappointment.
I think it’s near impossible to pinpoint an authority for the idea that this was a World Cup without expectation, but it was generally accepted as a notion. I suppose it has come from oscillating between hope and despair at the numerous tournaments which have preceded. We England fans are so accustomed to these intense shifts of feelings, there is never usually an in between. We wanted to avoid that this time.
Perhaps, social media played a role – this was after all the first “social media World Cup” – whereby enough users had been tweeting about how little expectation there was, or at least acknowledging its non-existence. However, enough people were using it as a reason to justify why England would do well at this World Cup. The newspapers and media in general, inadvertently, give enough reasons in their reporting for people to slowly accumulate an expectation; whether those people realise it or not.
Examples and acknowledgments of this paradoxical notion of little or no expectation
BBC Sport, Guide to England’s Group D
For once England arrive at a major tournament not weighed down by too much expectation, as the home of football takes the beautiful game to its modern day mecca.
Nick Webster @dcfc_flagman Jun 9
“No expectation. No pressure. Just like Derby last season. Got a feeling we will beat Italy and this will be a good World Cup for England”.
Dominic James Lau @Dom_Lau Jun 14
“This years @England squad have flair, speed, youth & no burdens of expectation. Italy… should be very worried! #WorldCup”
David Baddiel @baddiel Jun 14
“Feel the ‘no expectation this time’ about England has now become an expectation that we will do well ‘cos there’s no expectation”.
According to Bet365, England opened the betting at 2/1, but ended it at 19/20. Uruguay opened at 69/50, closed at 29/10. England expects. Pressure is heaped. Gerrard dares not lose. This is the side that got beat by those makeweights, we can do this.
The English World Cup 2014 Narrative 