I am watching England v Germany as I write. I have decided that supporting England is like the ultimate abusive relationship.
They do just enough to keep you interested by changing their shirt colour and beating the Netherlands once every few years and even Germany once or twice. You think all the years of suffering was worth it as you get a few minutes of pure bliss.
But then suddenly they can’t even beat the USA and you wonder what on earth happened. Or you sit and watch as the commentator says; “If Waddle misses this England are out of the World Cup.” And of course he does miss. And you never forget that phrase.
Germany has just scored. It is one-nil. And still we watch in the vain hope that there will be a miraculous turnaround and our boys will do something to keep us in the relationship for another four years…..
OK, it’s now two-nil. Porca Miseria.
Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2010
But at least Rafa is still in the running at Wimbledon – even if there were a few heart-stopping moments on Saturday in his match against, yes, a German (and before anyone accuses me of racism that is just stating a fact of nationality, ok?) who I thought played a superb match tactically but ran out of steam. A bit like the England team except they didn’t have the tactical nous.
Porca miseria! Ma-donna, I love it. We listened to the first half here in Tuscany via the Internet and Radio 5 Live but the BBC commentary was so biased and so horribly yobbish in words and spirit we turned instead for the second half to RAI 1 radio, which was far kinder to everyone plus much better for our Italian. I wish to goodness I could feel remotely patriotic when it came to England playing football but I just can’t and the most moving moment for us was hearing the national anthem being played at the beginning. Still, at least Radio 5 Live kept us updated with the cricket score…