Not Coming Home
I don't follow football (soccer) but I do enjoy watching football (soccer) matches. The tribalism of the whole football (soccer) scene just leaves me cold. I hear people at work talking about how "we" did at the weekend and it just puzzles me. Why tie your whole personality to a sports business? Also treating your opponents as your life sworn enemy who deserves nothing but death is kind of weird.
I'm not a regular guy, I suppose.
Tonight England play Dr Congo (whoever he is) in the football (soccer) World Cup. It's a knockout match which means whoever wins will progress in the tournament, whilst the losers go home.
Big footballing (soccer playing) nations like Germany and The Netherlands have already been knocked out. These are teams with a rich history in the World Cup, removed by supposedly lesser teams (Paraguay and Morocco respectively). So, tonight anything could happen and there's a very good chance that England could be Coming Home, but not in the "Three Lions" sense.
The English have a bit of a problem with how they view their national squad's standing in international football (international soccer). The England team have won the World Cup once - in 1966 - and since then the nation's football (soccer) pundits and fans have expected a repeat performance in every tournament they qualify for. The English seem to believe that the England football (soccer) team are to be considered on a par with legendary great footballing (soccer playing) nations like Brazil or Germany - multiple World Cup winners - whereas realistically the team is no better than Croatia or Denmark or Norway. Like Uruguay, it just won the tournament a lifetime ago.
Every Single International Tournament we are told "It's Coming Home" (a call back to the 1996 England football (soccer) team's anthem for the Euro 1996 tournament "Three Lions", which describes England fans' "Thirty years of hurt" of supporting a team that consistently failed miserably to win any major tournament for three decades) and every year England football (soccer) team return empty-handed. Reality seldom meets expectations for England fans who instantly forget their team just lost and keep remembering 1966.
Before this year's World Cup started, teams played warm up matches against opponents not in their group. England played New Zealand whereas Scotland (who hadn't qualified for a world cup for 2,000 years) played a team who I can't remember. The English commentators on the English game were disappointed with England's 1-0 win, whereas the Scots commentators were expressing absolute shock and awe that Scotland were scoring goals against an opposing team with apparent ease.
The difference between the two commentary teams' commentary styles neatly summed up the England football (soccer) story. The Scots always expect to do badly and rejoice when they win (or draw or even only just lose); whereas the England team are a collection of sporting gods descended from the heavens and walk the earth to deservedly annihilate all opponents with mind blowingly stylish football (soccer) and so a mere 1-0 victory is basically no better than a loss.
England and English fans are so far up their own arses they are basically looking out of their own mouths. It's a national delusion that the team is better than it actually is. A big part of me hopes that England are embarrassed tonight by their "lesser" opponents, returning home in shame.
Like I said, I guess I am not a regular guy.