Well here we go again. After a less-than-impressive 2-0 win away to mighty Andorra England go to Zagreb tonight for a crucial World Cup qualifier. Since becoming an independent nation Croatia have never lost at home and of course they beat England home and away during the Euro qualifiers. The apparent uselessness of the England team is now firmly ingrained into society. There was an amusing quip from Irishman James Nesbitt at last nights film awards: "And the next category is best comedy performance, well you need to have something to watch when the England national team isn't playing." However personally I think that the uselessness of the England team being ingrained in society is just typical of the English over-swinging pendulum. Before the 2006 World Cup there was so much hysterical rubbish in the media about what a great team we had - a lot of it from people who should have known better. Those of us who know a bit about football pointed out that actually, no, they weren't that great and no we probably won't win it. Even after we were knocked out our failure was blamed on the usual suspects: the manager was rubbish and a foreigner cheated (Ronaldo WINKED when Rooney was sent off!) Now of course after not even QUALIFYING for the last tournament the pendulum has swung too far and the team is vilified as a bunch of useless, over-paid prima-donnas who don't give a toss. That is as woefully inaccurate as the 'best team since 1970' tag - although I'll grant you there's far more evidence for it. So I'm actually cautiously optimistic and I reckon it'll be 1-1 or we might even sneak it 2-1. Although victory will bring its own problems as one swallow will suddenly make a summer and the England team will be seen as world-beaters again. Still, let's cross that bridge when we come to it. And I'm just off to Spain (Marbella) now for the weekend to play golf, so if we lose I won't be here to see my prediction rammed down my throat!
Bloody hell 4-1 ! I thought we might sneak a win but that was brilliant! Made up for the fact that my golf ... well it's no surprise to find I haven't beeen selected for the European Ryder Cup team ...
I'm sick of watching England embarrass us and themselves. I therefore try to not invest my emotions into their games any more. OK, we beat Croatia. So what?! It's tragic that such a thing has become noteworthy. We sat out of the last Euro like a bunch of fools. It was so frustrating, not to mention embarrassing. We had better make it to the World Cup, or I'll never watch another match again. Well . . . I probably will, but you know what I mean . . .