Monday 28 June 2010

This is me not talking about football...




Strangely I seemed to be the one most upset in our family about the calamity that happened last night with the England world cup football team. Of course watching it we were all tense. After the disallowed goal son couldn't sit still and had to go and watch the game in the solitude of the kitchen. I was told to stop shouting at the telly. During the second half an eerie silence descended onto our TV room.



Husband later said, 'You know I'm not that upset. The Man United fans have always cared more about their team than England, and now I know how they feel.'

I felt cheated: I'd had great difficulty in engaging with the World Cup this year but finally after the last England group game I got hooked. (Perhaps due to that goal by the Spurs striker above) Of course I thoroughly enjoyed watching the wall to wall football all the time but I also wanted England to do well. With such good squad and manager, on paper, surely we should do well? Besides, I had no-one else to cheer: Finns had got nowhere near qualifying and even the Swedes failed to reach South Africa.

Jason Isaacs, otherwise known as Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter when asked one BBC1's Breakfast Show about the football said, 'I'm supporting Spain, Liverpool-on-sea, anyway.'

So there we have it, if the English care more about the club football, and the players obviously do, how an earth can we expect the national team even want to do well?

Is English football the victim of its own success? We have world leading club football but cannot put together an English team worth its oranges at half time.

And if you didn't already know it, we all root for Spurs and cannot wait for the next season, especially as we hopefully will have a much shorter journey to watch the games at White Hart Lane.

9 comments:

Wildernesschic said...

Helena I love Jason Isaacs.. Have you been watching him in "The Brotherhood"?
If not I strongly suggest you take a peak, he is brilliant. It is now on its third and final series, it is quite violent but we love it.
If you can watch the first series, primarily because I think it was fantastic and secondly you will understand the characters and the journey they have been on xx
As for England I am just so fed up with being .. the never were's .. we have so much talent but cannot seem to get it to gel together. You know I am a huge United fan but found Wayne Rooney lack luster in this tournament.. but so were they all xx

Unknown said...

I am upset as well, we Poles always root for whoever is playing against Germans;-) but now, ironically, England is out mostly due to two Poles with German citizenships...

Unknown said...

All I can say that at least our world cup isn't as bad as FIFA and Sepp Blatter's...xx

North West London Girl said...

They were so pitiful, they just didn't seem to have the will to win. It doesn't make any sense at all, as you say on paper it should be a doddle. I still think David Beckham should be the coach, he understands the players (even the new ones coming up), he is totally passionate about the England team, experts can deal with technical training, he can deal with what's going wrong in their heads. I looked at my 12.5 year old, whos face was etched with disappointment and I couldn't say anything to make it better for him, and he will have to wait another 4 years to see if England can pull their socks up and get out there and fight for it..Gosh what a rant, sorry xxx

Señora B said...

Finally got round to checking out your blog - Just going through the story about how you came to live in England. Loving it. How did you remember everything in such detail?

I'll deffo be coming back for more!

Unknown said...

NW London Girl, it's what the footie does to all of us - look at me not even English!

Corte Inglesa, Welcome, I love your blog! I'm thrilled you're reading 'How I came to be in England' Strangely as I wrote chapter after chapter it all came to me in vivid detail. The final chapters will be up very soon.

Helena xx

Anonymous said...

@anna maria: such thoughts are just ugly - and I´ m rather disturbed finding them here

Ada

gotoflo said...

@anna maria
I must agree with anonymous, very disgusting this way of arguing. I thought this way of thinking is behind us......

gotoflo said...

congratulation to your blog. I loved your story how I came to England,also the way you write about the upcoming move and the changes in your life. Being of the same age as you, with grown up boys and having lived in numerous places, I definitly know how you feel.