Football

[mrph]

England 1, Argentina 0

So, of course, Brumgoth is full of posts about football (CovHeretics, thankfully, isn't), the city centre pubs are full of drunks with England flags and/or facepaint, and the drunk who marched past my bus queue was yelling "C'maaan! Whazup! Aren't yer fuckin' proud of yer fuckin' country?".

Good question. I'm proud of a lot of the things it's done (which isn't quite the same thing) - but Beckham kicking a ball into a net isn't one of them.

It's not that I don't like football (I watched the Senegal/France match when I was in Montreal, and really enjoyed it), it's just that I don't take it quite that seriously - and I certainly don't think it's any real measure of patriotism (which is itself an entirely different can of worms, and one which I won't open here).

Am I missing something? (testosterone, perhaps?)

Comments

[girfan.livejournal.com]

At least here (UK), one doesn't have to worry about all the over-zealous fans with guns.
There have been incidents in US cities where rioting breaks out if a sports team wins, complete with looting, burning cop cars and people being shot dead for not cheering "____ is number one".

I actually had to watch the news to see who won since it's been quiet around here all day. If it was my home town, I would be under a seige of banging lamposts with sticks, car horns and guns!

:O

[mouseboks.livejournal.com]

I think it is merely that you have the maturity to consolidate your sense of cultural identity through means other than using sporting events as an excuse for jingoism. There are depressing few who can :(
(Was a good game though ;)

[glitchdrei.livejournal.com]

i have to say i agree... but then again i probably am missing some testosterone ;)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Maybe you just have better uses for whiteface than painting a flag on your face...:)

[ladybirdintheuk.livejournal.com]

nah, who needs testosterone anyway (spent far too much of this afternoon pretending I cared to random football blokes at work ... )

According to the women in my office...

[sciolist.livejournal.com]

Emile Heskey is a startling fit bloke. That's 'fit' with waggling eyebrows, rather than a practised athlete sort of fit. Though I'm sure the state of Heskey's cardiovascular fitness does help.

Sadly he didn't get his top off at the end of the match, so I was denied a chance to consider this myself.
Testosterone can't be the answer.

[juudes.livejournal.com]

You know me - I LURRVE football! But I am not at all patriotic (I'm am extremely angry about a lot of the things done in the name of 'England' or 'Britain') and I find it hard to support England in sporting events, which makes it a bit difficult. I could hardly cheer for Argentina!

Anyway, Owen dived; although by listening to all the commentary you wouldn't think so. 'He was very cunning' was as far as they went. Would they have held back if an Argentinian had conned the ref? I think not...