Warming up
This is going to take a lot more planning than I thought even at the end of my last entry... It's very easy to be drawn back in to old behaviour! Bad habits (like ringing my mate and agreeing to go down the pub to watch England v Greece) are hard to get out of. If I'd planned my week better, I'd have done the same on Tuesday instead, watched Wales v Bulgaria on Sky, and sat at home Wednesday night with my Jess and the Beeb rather than get drunk with my mate (which is always fun) and listen to him dissect a remarkable first performance by the McClaren's team (which much as I appreciated at the time, being an avid Scot he can't help himself!) My point is though I'm going to have to take opportunities when they are there, as it's going to make this "Mission"/"adventure"/"story"/"whatever" harder if I don't...
Wales v Bulgaria, although only a draw, and a rather poor performance by Bulgaria, was encouraging. If they enter this competition with more confidence, building on the two-year Toshack inspired revolution, their youth and experience could see them put in a more consistent performance than in recent years (which Wales will need against the likes of Germany). A lot (perhaps too much, too soon) has been said about England's performance (and jokes like first half good, second half not so ARE also consistent!) but it was very encouraging - if a little hurtful like "why couldn't they have...." etc. Let's see eh.... ...but no denying the best friendly result since beating Northern Ireland in 1932, which leads onto...
...Northern Ireland and Finland. Another encouraging performance - despite losing their number two coach only hours before - and again with little or no coverage! - back to my last point about making more of an effort to get info - my mission for the next couple of weeks it to get into the murky world of regional news, particularly for Northern Ireland, who I've not heard a lot from since, well, the last time they met England.......
Missing someone? Scotland meet the Faroe Islands in their first competitive match on September 2nd, as do all the home nations. This leads to my next dilemma, one I’m not prepared to admit to you yet........!
Hard choices
There's a lot of focus, naturally, on the unveiling of Steve McClaren's first squad. Personally, I think Terry is an excellent choice of captain, and his astute decision to drop Becks altogether will pay dividend in future, even if he plays for the team again (and I strongly suspect he will!) What has occurred to be after scouring the (admittedly national London based) press is that whilst there is much focus on the fortunes of the next England squad, there is little comment on what other preparations are being made by the other home teams. It occurs to me for the first time how under-prepared I am in terms of resource/knowledge on how to deal with actually either learning anything or finding out news from the other home nation's teams? (Short of the links I've got attached to this blog).
My second dilemma is fixtures and TV coverage. Not sure what my plans are for Wednesday's England game, but if I'm going to give this mission a fair crack, I need to be if not watching then at least monitoring the "other" friendlies this week. Where we live, Sky just isn't an option right now (although I am open to investigating the alternatives). Admittedly, I'm helped on this occasion by Wales playing Tuesday, Northern Ireland at 5pm Wednesday and England 8pm - but it won't always be this easy... The internet is great for filling the gaps, but TV coverage, particularly friendly matches for the other nations, is not great...Cannot fall at the first hurdle!
This was our year?
7pm. Saturday 1st July 2006. It's all over...
...and to be honest, I'm not that surprised. Sure, I'm gutted, sad, angry, disappointed, bu not that surprised. Watching England had been a painful process since the end of the first half against Paraguay three weeks earlier. Ignoring all the hype, I tried to be objective as possible about our chances for the months leading up to Germany 2006. This self-defensive form of cynicism stood me in good stead and mentally prepared for the inevitable - it dawned on me quite early on (suffering in the heat against Paraguay in that first match? struggling against Hungary in the pre-tournament friendly?) that we would struggle to win the world cup.
There have been recriminations and arguments aplenty since that July evening and column after column of opinion from our "star" players ("we deserved to win", "this was our year" - sorry but we you watching the same competition as the rest of us?) but this is not what this blog is about. Everything starts afresh with a new season.
I decided, much to the bemusement of friends, that devoting my time to watching England was increasingly frustrating. I've been accused of abandoning ship just because we haven't won anything (I've been loyal since my "first time" - 1990). I've been told that I should remain loyal, faithful, not give up hope, and so on. But at the moment, my England shirt resides at the back of the wardrobe, and it will be a while before I can get it back on again - it's funny, but I feel let down like you might by a relationship that didn't quite work out - almost like I can't wear the shirt or watch the film we used to like together out of embarrassment! Now, I'm not a "glory-hunter" or a "turn- coat" - I'm proud to be English and I will always be an England fan at heart. I really, really hope that Steve McClaren can turn it all around and make us proud again - hopefully, all those St Georges flags will not be packed away for too long!
However, away from football, I'm still proud to be British too. So, partly in response to all those friends, and partly because I feel hurt, or maybe even because I want to try something new, I hit on the idea that next time, Euro 2008, I would try and follow the fortunes of the other home nations too and see where it led me? Who knows, maybe next time it will be England's year? Or maybe I'll be there cheering on someone else? This is my story.
