Mate posted this on fb earlier.
Sunday, 11 July 2021.
The country has waited 55 years, most of us have never experienced seeing England in a major final (Le Tournoi stretching the definition of 'major' a step too far)
Remembering those first England home games as a kid, my dad dragging me up those huge staircases to sit in often sparsely populated stands. Leaving at full time and being carried over a huge pool of piss in the stairwell on the way back down. New Wembley, squeaky clean, but up until now pretty sterile atmospherewise.
Away games are what sorts the men from the boys( can I still say that? Will I get cancelled!?) Often many thousands of fans from all over the country (and even fans exiled overseas) turning up to watch the team, and (usually) support them to the hilt. Sometimes pointless friendlies, or one-sided qualifiers against lowly ranked opposition, you'll always see the same old faces, along with some new ones starting out on the England journey. Friendly locals (love is international
) to some that are not so pleased to see you. Usually (who can forget McClaren
) qualifying for a tournament is a breeze. That's where the pain starts.
Whether it's incompetent farts at the FA, awful managers, dodgy refs, questionable squad selections, last minute injuries, dodgy refs, poor tactics, prima donna players that just aren't that bothered, dodgy refs, we've seen it all. That feeling of going into a tournament waiting for the inevitable failure to happen, I guess it's the reason most people ask us 'Why do you waste your money watching that crap?'
We've seen unbelievable levels of corruption at both UEFA and FIFA, even the FA joining in by sending a team to play a friendly in the Caribbean to line the pockets and secure the vote of one of the most corrupt men in football (He voted for someone else to host that WC)
Seeing the faces of regulars, irregulars, those in semi-retirement and those that had pretty much retired, at Wembley over the last month is what it's all about. The pre-match nerves only a tournament can bring. Those wide-eyed smiles after each win (Scotland, wtf happened there?!?)
Multiple discussions over the squad, the team picked for each game, those on the bench and whether the manager is really up to it, all generally conducted in good spirit as most of us fully appreciate football is a game of opinions.
Today is history for the country, win or lose, we finally seem to have a team with young players coming through that seem to be as massive England fans as the rest of us.
Whether I see you in the stadium later, whether you're sat in a pub or the garden with your mates, or sat in the front room on your own as you're too tense to enjoy watching in a group let's all drink this in, and hopefully at the end we can be the ones partying!
PS anyone else got massive feels for Mason Mount over this tournament, seems to be one of the nicest men on the planet?!?
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