On Watching England Play Football
Jul. 19th, 2021 04:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danieldwilliamOne other thing that we did whilst on holiday was watch the latter stages and the final of Euro 2020. Well the Captain and I did. MLW mostly confined herself to watching Wimbledon.
I suppose the football all ended predictably and satisfactorily. The best team won and the England footballing community managed to balance a just reward for a decent, in both senses of the word, football team with making tits of themselves through a combination of entitlement, hubris, sentimentality, racism, beer and the curse of having a catchy theme tune.
The Captain dug in to supporting Denmark. He has a Danish friend. As Uruguay don't play in the Euros (which demonstrates that the footballing establishment is out to get us and no mistake) I swung my considerable sporting support behind the three teams that I drew in the office sweepstakes, Austria, Turkey and Finland and thereafter supported the team that it would be funniest if they won.
We watched the final together. It was quite tense. My mother is distraught. My father is hiding his disappointment behind stoic words of praise for the "young team". My friend J, who for the latter stages of the tournament had been messaging the uni friend's WhatApp group with ALL CAPS "IT'S COMING HOME!" has yet to respond to any messages. I am worried for him.
I was not surprised by the final. Italy seemed to be. I thought England would start quickly and score first. It took Italy longer than I expected to re-organise themselves England scored. They were clearly not expecting England to actually score. I'd expected Italy to win 3-1 but they seemed to prefer sidling up to a penalty shoot-out. England losing a final they both didn't expect to be in and were a nailed on certainty to be in, at Wembley, on penalties to not Germany. It doesn't get much funnier than that.
As soon as Rashford missed his penalty I thought he'd get racially abused. Not a particularly perspicacious prediction. He's a black man, he's going to be racially abused what ever happens. But so it proved. What was a bit less predictable was the UK government having no problem with racist fans until they realised that the England team has a problem with racist fans and so do most England fans. That isn't surprising, Marcus Rashford is more popular with voters than Boris Johnson and Marcus Rashford's food voucher policy is more popular with the government than Boris Johnson's food voucher policy. What is a bit surprising is that the government had the wit to realise that they were being too racist and change their story.
There is a special place in my heart for the football commentary of Guy Mowbray. He's right up there with the ITV rugby commentary team. Listening to English commentary on England playing football is like watching Danny De Vito arguing with Jonny Lee Miller, Billy Bob Thornton and Brad Pitt about which one of them has the best chance of dating Angelina Jolie. I am seriously considering petitioning for BBC Scotland to have it's own commentary team for tournaments in which England is playing. Possibly employing the orang-utan from the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Anyway another 18 months of hurt until England simultaneously under perform and over perform at a major football tournament again.
I suppose the football all ended predictably and satisfactorily. The best team won and the England footballing community managed to balance a just reward for a decent, in both senses of the word, football team with making tits of themselves through a combination of entitlement, hubris, sentimentality, racism, beer and the curse of having a catchy theme tune.
The Captain dug in to supporting Denmark. He has a Danish friend. As Uruguay don't play in the Euros (which demonstrates that the footballing establishment is out to get us and no mistake) I swung my considerable sporting support behind the three teams that I drew in the office sweepstakes, Austria, Turkey and Finland and thereafter supported the team that it would be funniest if they won.
We watched the final together. It was quite tense. My mother is distraught. My father is hiding his disappointment behind stoic words of praise for the "young team". My friend J, who for the latter stages of the tournament had been messaging the uni friend's WhatApp group with ALL CAPS "IT'S COMING HOME!" has yet to respond to any messages. I am worried for him.
I was not surprised by the final. Italy seemed to be. I thought England would start quickly and score first. It took Italy longer than I expected to re-organise themselves England scored. They were clearly not expecting England to actually score. I'd expected Italy to win 3-1 but they seemed to prefer sidling up to a penalty shoot-out. England losing a final they both didn't expect to be in and were a nailed on certainty to be in, at Wembley, on penalties to not Germany. It doesn't get much funnier than that.
As soon as Rashford missed his penalty I thought he'd get racially abused. Not a particularly perspicacious prediction. He's a black man, he's going to be racially abused what ever happens. But so it proved. What was a bit less predictable was the UK government having no problem with racist fans until they realised that the England team has a problem with racist fans and so do most England fans. That isn't surprising, Marcus Rashford is more popular with voters than Boris Johnson and Marcus Rashford's food voucher policy is more popular with the government than Boris Johnson's food voucher policy. What is a bit surprising is that the government had the wit to realise that they were being too racist and change their story.
There is a special place in my heart for the football commentary of Guy Mowbray. He's right up there with the ITV rugby commentary team. Listening to English commentary on England playing football is like watching Danny De Vito arguing with Jonny Lee Miller, Billy Bob Thornton and Brad Pitt about which one of them has the best chance of dating Angelina Jolie. I am seriously considering petitioning for BBC Scotland to have it's own commentary team for tournaments in which England is playing. Possibly employing the orang-utan from the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Anyway another 18 months of hurt until England simultaneously under perform and over perform at a major football tournament again.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-20 10:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-22 11:32 am (UTC)They seem to exist in a sort of super-position of being guaranteed to win and certain to lose at all times. And entitled to win and it appears never to occur to them that perhaps the reason they have won one major trophy and e.g. Uraguay have won 19 is that England aren't that good at football.
And the work on racism has been interesting to watch over the last 20 years.