Eng-er-land

International football, Pah!  Who cares, it’s rubbish anyway, we never win anything and it’s not as good as the Premier League or the FA Cup.  Every time it’s the same, we build them up, we hope for their fitness, we pray for their bones to heal and expect them to win every match and their name to be on every trophy.  But they never fail to disappoint, it’s been that way since 1966 when I was just a boy and we’ve been trying to rekindle that glory ever since.

I’ve tried not to get involved, not even to watch the games.  Even though they have been on the television that’s been in the corner of the room I’ve only glanced at the scores every so often out of the corner of my eye to see who was winning and to see when we would be inevitably knocked out, forced to return home un-triumphant and filled with excuses to face the usual gamut of inventive and humorous red top head lines.

But wait, what’s happened?  We’ve drawn one against a very good club, won against the bogey team that we’ve never beaten before and then, only needing a draw we’ve gone and won again.   Top of the group and we’re not even firing on all cylinders and when everyone least expected it.  The fans said it wouldn’t happen and the pundits said it wouldn’t happen and their hotel was too far from where the matches were being played and it is so hot and it’s in a foreign country. 

We’re through to the quarter finals, past the group stages and into the knockout games.  That’s nearly the semi-finals.   We’re only two hundred and seventy minutes from being the best in Europe, plus a bit of stoppage team.  That new manager, perhaps he’s not so bad after all, perhaps the FA did know what they were doing.

Excitement is rising, you can feel it.  Where there was despair you can feel the faintest glimmer of hope.  People are starting to talk about it, daring to dream, daring to think the unthinkable.  I’m going to watch the match tonight, properly with beer in hand and a bowl of peanuts to keep up my strength, I might even get out my vuvuzela.  But I’m not going to expect too much as clearly they play better when England does not expect.

Come on Eng-er-land!