Jubilation in Hastings (for now)
Popular expectations of World Cup success for the England team this time round have seemed at an all-time low. They are what a trade analyst might call a damaged brand after their first round exit four years ago following defeats by Italy and Uruguay, then humiliating elimination from the 2016 Euros by Iceland. Even their current well-spoken manager Gareth Southgate is only famous for (a) missing a crucial penalty in the Euro 1996 semifinal shoot-out against Germany; (b) playing himself in a Pizza Hut ad that made fun of it. England hosts many of the world’s best footballers performing week in, week out in the Premier League. But the more they dazzle for Chelsea or Manchester City or Liverpool, the more we notice the scarcity of English-born players among them. We have surely learnt to be modest about our place in international football.
But how long does that modesty last if the national team starts winning? Well, judging by the first week and a half of World Cup football, less than two hours.
On the first Monday evening of the tournament I watched England play Tunisia (population 12 million, FIFA ranking 21st) in the Shots sports bar on Albert Road. It felt like a reprise of almost every England football match we’ve had to endure for the last couple of decades – a frustrating mixture of the almost sublime and the strangely incompetent, lifting us up and letting us down. The seated audience around me bit their nails and occasionally yelled (mostly for Raheem Sterling to be replaced). Then Harry Kane scored in added time to seal a 2-1 victory. It was deserved, but we were still surprised: are England allowed to win like that?
Last Sunday I was among the sweaty lads of the Bar Moda in Queens Road as our heroes faced Panama (population 4 million, FIFA ranking 55th). Kane thumped home the first of his two penalties in the 20th minute, and a rowdy chorus broke into an apparently spontaneous rendition of ‘Football’s Coming Home’. By half-time, with a 5-0 scoreline, the room was a melee of unbridled jubilation. No matter that the players meandered through the second half like a Sunday afternoon snooze. They are world beaters again, who cared?
By the time you read this England will have played again, against Belgium. They have a population less than Tunisia’s, but a FIFA ranking of third in the world and a roll-call of the Premier League’s finest: Hazard, Lukaku, De Bruyne, Courtois. A win for England then, and we’ll all have to start believing. Though if it wasn’t, we may have to return to reality.
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