England - Why we HAVE to win.....someday.

Now anybody that knows me will realise I've hardly been the biggest football fan for the last, hmmmm, 16 years or so. But I do still love football. I grew up loving football and still remember the 1990 World cup like it was yesterday. Now yes a few years later I began playing basketball and my transformation into a yank had sadly begun. But underneath all of the American in me, I'm still an idiotic, English football fan, oh yes I am.

It's a question of mortality. Every 4 years, we have our hearts torn out and stomped on and the most painful thing is knowing we'll have to wait ANOTHER 4 YEARS before we do it all again. Even if you don't give a fuck about football, this should still bother you as a human being, counting the seconds of your existence. English world cup football is like an egg timer for your life and time can be a very cruel thing indeed.

The best effort I have seen in my lifetime is still Italia 1990. I remember David Platt scoring that goal in the last minute of extra time sending us to the quarter finals. In the quarters even Ireland gave Italy a run for their money just losing out 1-0. We then took on Cameroon and the awesome Roger Milla. Platt opened the score for us and all looked good. But with only 20 odd minutes or so left we were 2-1 down to the underdogs, story of our lives right? WRONG. Lineker, fucking legend that he was brought us back by victory by scoring two penalties on a row........

sorry, what was that?? What did you say.....?

THAT'S RIGHT, ONE PLAYER SCORED TWO MOTHERFUCKING PENALTIES IN A ROW FOR US AND WE WON THE GAME. WE CAN DO IT!!!

Semi finals and once again we found ourselves in a familiar situation. 1-0 down after a fucking own goal. I still remember now the moment that ball deflected off of Paul Parker and went high in the sky lobbing poor Peter Shilton. Fucking heartbreaking. But Lineker, LEGEND, brought us right back in the last ten minutes......

Penalties. Oh Fuck.

As a nation we had to rid ourselves of this fear of losing. We play not to lose, we play scared and we play cautious. We need to rid ourselves of this fear, this pressure and just let our talent speak for itself. We have the players, we have the chance, we just need the attitude. Fuck it if we make mistakes *cough* fuck it if our keeper makes mistakes. Mistakes are good, as long as we recover from them quickly and the only way to do that is show belief in our team. So despite being a such a traitorous Americano, I am with you England. Let's erase all the heartbreak and take it back to 1990 when we had some belief in ourselves.

If not, I'll be one of thousands of 60 year olds huddled around a TV praying that this year will be OUR year. I believe we CAN win this year. If we don't why are we bothering?