The last week of anticipation and countdown has been almost unbearable.
Yesterday's opening ceremony gave the world the bizarre spectacle of hundreds of German chaps in lederhosen seemingly fornicating with large bells. And who ever said that our Teutonic friends lack humour. Fantastic!
The weird ritual of mass man-on-metal copulation clearly did the trick for the host nation's team -- which won an amazing opening drama against Costa Rica.
And today, at 2pm our campaign begins in earnest against Paraguay.
While I'm fearful that we probably won't win and will be summarily expelled from the competiton on penalties in the Quarter or Semi Finals, I, like the many millions of my countrymen and women can still dream of glory.
I was born in the year that England last (and first) won the World Cup, and 40 years on, maybe there's a mathematical symmetry at play..?
We do, of course, have probably the strongest national team assembled since '66, and even without the recovering Rooney, the well balanced squad is almost to a man at-peak-performance (with the obvious exception of Campbell).
Unusually for a Saturday, I've been up since 5:00am -- like a kid at Christmas -- and I know it has nothing to do with work or wedding stress. I literally can't wait.
To co-opt the now famous song -- I still believe.
No comments:
Post a Comment