It is time for a bit of humility on our part. If this is "luck", its consistent reappearance every two to four years is starting to look a little suspicious.

Why humility?

Both England and Germany (and many others) are now out of the 2006 World Cup. The German team perhaps deserve a little credit for going out (before being beaten 2 - 0 by Italy) at the semi final stage rather than (unbeaten) at the quarter final stage on penalties, like England. But both of them are now out.

Neither side's play exactly set the tournament on fire and Germany had the advantage of playing on home soil - where they had won it before. As far as the England and German teams are concerned the difference is simply that one side performed better than expected and the other did worse than expected.

I suggest that it was just that these expectations were wrong.