England must move on from penalty misses - Waddle

Last updated : 08 July 2009 By Footy Mad - Editor

In a rare interview about his penalty miss against Germany in the 1990 World Cup semi-final, Waddle commented: "For me, people harp on about penalties far too often. Every country loses on pens but it's only in England that people talk about when they do. The only thing that this achieves is to put negative thoughts into modern players. If we get to a penalty shoot-out in South Africa next year, they will be thinking about something that happened when some of them weren't even born."

Waddle will come face-to-face with the Germany Italia '90 squad on Sunday July 26th when the two nations face off for The Sir Bobby Robson Trophy at Newcastle's St. James' Park. The match has been organized to celebrate the life of Newcastle's favourite son, and to help raise the profile of his outstanding Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Foundation.

Waddle added: "Sweden lost to England Under-21s the other week. Italy has lost games on pens, France have, Holland have, Croatia. They just have this thing about it and whether it s to sell papers or not I don't know. All it does is make the atmosphere negative for English teams. I missed that night but I can't turn the clock back. And neither can any player who misses, it's part of the game. It's happened to me, Pearce, Southgate gets it, Ince, Batty and Beckham."

Waddle, who will be joined in the game against the Germany Italia '90 squad by Paul Gascoigne, Peter Beardsley, David Platt, Des Walker, Peter Shilton, Dave Beasant, Steve Hodge, Les Ferdinand, Rob Lee, John Beresford, Steve Howie and Neil Webb, added: "What will be will be when it comes to pens and it isn't the end of the world. We're talking about something that happened in 1990, it's 2009 now and we are talking about it. It's holding English football back, that chapter has gone now. It was 19 years ago, people like Baggio and Baresi missed in 1994 but do not have to talk about missing penalties!"

Waddle will face off against the likes of Lothar Mattheus, Thomas Helmer, Fredi Bobic, Steffen Freund, Guido Buchwald and Bodo Illgner.

Tickets for The Sir Bobby Robson Trophy match are £10 for adults and £5 for children, are available from www.nufc.co.uk or by calling 0844 372 1892.