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Key events
Paul McInnes
In addition to Jacob’s post from earlier, I can confirm that it hasn’t been any easier for people traveling by train. With Gelsenkirchen station being the main pre-match gathering point, there weren’t nearly enough buses or transmissions to cope with the demand (although there were dozens of police vans to attend to people hiding from the rain). Literally thousands of people make the four-mile journey from the station to the ground, most of them after a day of beer. I haven’t seen any problems though.
Damien Clarke is back: “I was in Lisbon in 2004, I stayed in a friend’s apartment. On the afternoon of the penalty final, I had maybe three hours of his neighbors throwing things at the windows, singing, dancing and shouting “English aah!”
Glorious I believe you joined it? I wouldn’t classify myself as England fan – my last two trips to internationals at Wembley were at the end – but I was in Tarabin, Egypt at the start of the 1998 World Cup. except of course they were showing Tunisia vs Romania.
Good news for both teams tonight: Others in the group, Slovenia and Denmark, ended in a 1-1 draw.
“Surely ‘You can wait a lifetime/Spend your days in the sun/You might as well make the white line'” are texts which England fans live by, judging by the fans attached to the torch of the last Euro, er… excesses?” wonders Nick Smith.
Hey up there, The Woke Mob are in town.
Email! “He’s a great guy,” says Damien Clarke. “I’ll take that picture tomorrow when I go to see my tailor, his name is Simon, I know it will.”
I struggle to understand a lot, but beige siotas are very close to the top of my endless hit parade.
What funny things have you seen and heard watch England in tournaments? One from my own catalogue: I watched the Argentina match in 1998 at Edgware’s world famous Railway Tavern. After England lost, a friend I made during the evening advised me that he was in a riotous mood. “What kind of cars do they make in Argentina?” he wondered. “Uh, not many,” I replied diplomatically. “I’ll find some,” he assured me.
Anyone who takes a peek at Michal Probierz, the manager of Poland, earlier? As roxette were wont to state, he has looks.
I wouldn’t say ITVX is worst playback app but it’s at the bottom.
Jacob Steinberg
Ours in Gelsenkirchen:
It could be tough for fans going to England’s game against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen tonight. I’m with Jonathan Liu and we were on a tram that left our base in Essen almost 90 minutes ago. We saw absolute chaos in what looked like an England fanpark, pouring rain, full buses, huge queues, full trams. No one seems to know what’s going on. There appeared to be tension between some fans and the German police. Now we wait for another tram to the ground. The organization is shocking.
It really works to break down stereotypes.
Currently covered for your delectation are:
Preamble
There could be no country more closely aligned with the concept of “sweet tomorrow and sweet yesterday – but never sweet today” – than England. Whether it’s Brexit, trickle-down economics or celebrating devastating wars that participants want to forget, the idea that things were better then and will be better in the future distracts people from the only thing that really exists : right now.
And ‘right now’ is exactly where Gareth Southgate’s England are. They can no longer feel proud of how close they came before, impressing in a series of tournaments before losing to the first half-decent side they faced; they can no longer assume that, as the team matures, they will pick up a trophy at some unspecified moment ahead; rather, this kernel and this manager either do it here or they don’t at all.
And how? Well, Noel Gallagher is nobody – except for Noel Gallagher’s idea of a songwriter. But his observation that “everything that has been is gone, the answer is in the mirror” is a rare slice of real talk in line with current therapeutic thinking and exactly how Southgate’s men should attack the next few weeks. The biggest obstacle to England dancing with Henri Delaunay for four weeks today is… England.
However, Serbia could prove to be a serious test. Their particular prowess in set-piece positions is a threat to a side that lacks dominant centre-backs, has unpleasant strikers and nobody expects them to do anything. But if Southgate can search within himself to find his best combination – not the one that causes the least controversy or gives him the most security. And if the players can remind themselves to be brave in the moments that matter, think clearly when they’re asked tough questions, and trust themselves to do what they feel – what they must – then they have as good a chance as much as anyone else, and if they can’t, like Brexit, a leaking economy and the effects of devastating wars, they don’t stand a chance. Jam: your time is now.
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