World Cup Nonsense

[Nigel]

Cheer up, lads - it could be worse. We could be supporting Switzerland (erk, I was, actually). As MLCMan says, no goals scored against them, but then again not a single shredicum of attacking flair, either.

Thanks to Sweder for reminding me that I could get Radio 5 Live coverage to go with the BBC pictures. Their discussion of who had or hadn't eaten Bounty bars and extra helpings of fish and chips was rather Brian Johnstonesque, but easily the most diverting aspect of the entire evening.

On a different note, driving through London on a gloriously sunny Sunday morning before the England-Ecuador game, I was really amazed by the number of flags all over the capital. It was great to see Ghana, Portugal and Italy all up there as well as England.

The St George's flag has long been degraded by its associations with fascist tendencies and the National Front, and I'm still not entirely comfortable with it. But for all of that, this is a World Cup summer which I'm sure we'll look back on with some affection, if not in fact for the football played.

What strikes me is the touching depth of devotion shown by pretty much the entire country for their team and the beautiful game, when in fact their team has so far served up nothing much more than unadulterated dross. It must be such a relief to all the players locked up in Berchtesbaden to think of their millions of countrymen cheering them on so forgivingly of their desperate ineptitude.

As Andy says, it's time to deliver. I'm not sure what it will take to make that happen. 'Better opposition,' the pundits all say, but as someone pondered during the Chelsea game, somehow Portugal's Chelsea reserves can manage to play outstandingly when they wear a national shirt, whilst England's Chelsea players fade faster than a Mourinho smile.

I can still remember finishing off a junior school concert with a rousing rendition of the England anthem of 1970, shortly before we watched England throw away their lead against Germany (that was where it all started to go wrong). And even though the New Order song from Italia 1990 is by far the best ever England record, the lyrics from that year in Mexico do ring ever truer as this summer's tournament progresses:

Back home,
They'll be watching and waiting
and cheering every move
Back home,
Though we think we're the greatest
That's what we've got to prove.

Enough said.