I now know the pain of being English. As all my friends outside of America, and none of them in, know, England lost to Portugal and was eliminated from the World Cup. The game took place in the middle of Europride, held in London this year, and I took my leave from the festivities along with my friend Alister and watched amongst my compatriots and lived the national experience.
I have to say, I've gotten swept up in the World Cup - it really has been fun. There's no equivalent in America; there, some people love baseball, some (American) football, some hockey... there's no overwhelmingly obvious consensus about one game, and one game only, that really matters - The Beautiful Game - and, nearly universally, everyone cares about it (though not all to the same extent). So the whole mood of the nation swings with the pendulum of England's success and failure on the pitch, and it really was fantastic, as a new immigrant, to be part of that.
An interesting observation for an American: the English are so pessimistic about their team. England won most games (it just takes one loss to be eliminated past round one), but all along the way the fans were deriding the team's performance, technique and chances. In America, we back our teams 100%; even when they, frankly, suck, we're shouting "Go team, go! USA! USA!" And, admittedly, as someone who never embraced American patriotism fully, that never sat well with me. But seeing this opposite approach, I am for the American way for once. I don't see how England could win with this rather rampant lack of enthusiasm and support.
All that aside, it's time to move on. Tonight is Germany vs. Italy, I am supporting Germany. A group of us are meeting at Santoré on Exmouth Market to watch. Then to the next match where, for once, all of England will unite in support of France to cheer them on to victory over those dirty, swarthy, cheating Portuguese.
GO TEAM GO!
Cheers,
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