England's 2010 World Cup campaign in South Africa is remembered for one thing – Frank Lampard's goal that never was against Germany.
The Three Lions crawled through the group stages, edging past Slovenia 1-0 in the final game of the group after being held to draws by the United States and Algeria. England's failure to top the group meant Fabio Capello's side would have to face a youthful Germany side in the last 16.
England suffered a 4-1 defeat to their old rivals who went on to finish third in the tournament. But the scoreline did not tell the whole story of the game as Lampard's strike that bounced down off the underside of the crossbar and over the line was not given as a goal.
It was a pivotal moment that would have levelled the game at 2-2 with England coming from two goals down after Matthew Upson halved the deficit just 53 seconds earlier.
The anger among the England squad was obvious on the pitch but David James, who took over from Rob Green as the Three Lions No.1 in the group stage, revealed how the dressing room reacted at half-time.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star Sport, on behalf of Grosvenor Sport, James recalled the incident and aimed a dig towards Capello's management and ability to control his players: “I didn't see it [the goal] so I had no inclination of what had happened, even though I could see that the team were frustrated at the time.
“The half-time wasn't dealt with properly. I think there was a lot of emotion in the changing room, a lot of frustration in the changing room, and what we needed was a bit of calm.
“The team knew that the ball had gone over the line, everyone knew except for the two people that needed to know, which was the linesman and the referee.
“And we went out in the second half, if my memory serves me right, [Germany goalkeeper Manuel] Neuer made a wonderful point blank save off Frank, Frank hit the crossbar with a free kick. There was so much intensity in that second half that we'd kind of lost.
“It sounds a bit ironic, but we kind of lost control of the game because we were playing on emotions, and then we got done with the sucker punch.
“In the end it was a very miserable day, and yes, the goal should have stood, but it didn't mean that we would have won the game, it meant we would have been 2-2.
“However, we got eliminated by a young German side who were fearless, had a great game plan, and then in Manuel Neuer had a great goalkeeper on the day.”
James added that he hopes the lessons of getting a grip on emotions in the changing room have been learned by Thomas Tuchel. “I'm just sort of fast forwarding today, I hope that Thomas Tuchel in all of his learning has been exposed or at least had conversations about managing teams at half-time.
“I think even now, as we have, using an American term four quarters, there will be moments in the game that the manager can get people back on track or back onto the track that he envisages if they're going to be successful.
“So there was a lot of learning that occurred in that game, and I just hope that those lessons have been taken on by Thomas Tuchel and the England squad going into this tournament.”
James also reflected that the moment has served as a point in the game where goal-line technology was unavoidable to be implemented, and one day England could benefit greatly from it.
“There's a part in life where you, in the moment you want to win, you want to do everything right, but sometimes you don't and because of that football becomes a better game.
“I think the speeding up of the goal line technology was courtesy of that goal. Football's benefited from that, so in a small way that really bad or sad moment actually contributed to something positive in football.”
