Comments on: Who supports whom?

By: tony

tony — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 19:57:54 +0000

dc – Yep, The Smoking Dog.

By: john b

john b — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 08:55:45 +0000

“As a Scot, would I be safe supporting Scotland (or Germany) anywhere in London?”

Germany possibly not, but I can’t imagine anyone getting into trouble in London for supporting Scotland (or any other British Isles national team) – see the English support for Ireland in USA 94…

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:57:09 +0000

cd – re andy murray, it’s simple: when he wins, it’s a great triumph for British tennis; when he loses, it’s a tragedy for the Scottish nation . . .

By: agm

agm — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:41:48 +0000

The Dallas Cowboys phenomenon rears its head

By: tina

tina — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:01:33 +0000

Since we were so lucky to have Kaiser Franz who did all he could to get the world cup to take place in Germany, since we have “die welt zu gast bei freunden” and since we are also very lucky to have jürgen Klinsmann developing to be the new Kaiser in the futere, I hope for a French versus German final.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 20:52:46 +0000

As a Scot, would I be safe supporting Scotland (or Germany) anywhere in London?

Also, my unashamed feeling on England’s exit was more relief than schadenfreude (ok, so there is a little). Not out of dislike for our neighbours, rather how their aspirations and expectations manifest through our shared media, year in year out (if 1966 has fueled this much triumphalism…).

By: cd

cd — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 18:33:07 +0000

Not to change the subject from soccer to tennis, but…

My English-in-laws were cheering for the Scotsman Andy Murray in Wimbledon. Any sense of how common such support for Murray is among the English? And if it is common, what is the best explanation for the difference b/w this and the football case? I can think of some possibilities, e.g. (1) the English, as the majority, aren’t as marked by resentment as minority Scots are (I won’t hazard a judgment as to the merits this resentment); (2) in tennis, players play for Britain rather than England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Island (what is the historical reason for this vis-a-vis soccer?); (3) the English are on the rebound from their unfulfilling affair with Tim Henman and will take any sort of victory; etc.

Of course (1)-(3) needn’t be mutually exclusive.

Just curious as to others’ thoughts.

By: John Burke

John Burke — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 17:00:24 +0000

“The locals were plainly pleased with the result, and so were—on the whole—RTE’s studio panel.”

The RTE panel is invariably more objective and provides far more intelligent and balanced comment and analysis on football than the BBC or ITV (its much easier to be objective when you’re not involved in the competition).

The person on the panel who has been “fairest” (or most favorable) to England throughout this World Cup was a scotsman – Graeme Souness.

By: Chris Bertram

Chris Bertram — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 14:23:53 +0000

Well I certainly need to acknowledge that my assumptions about which side my compatriots would back in Germany v Argentian were just wrong wrong wrong. In a Germany-France final I’m going to be fairly neutral, I think, unless it goes to penalties when I think that cosmic justice demands that Ballack and co sky every last one over the bar.

By: reuben

reuben — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 14:23:45 +0000

I’m an American who didn’t start following football till I immmigrated to England, so I support England rather than the US. (It’s about accumulated suffering and how much you care, and the American public has neither suffered enough nor cared enough to deserve to win yet). But having spent a week in Berlin for the world cup, I now find myself somewhat swept up in Klinsmania, and will be supporting the Germans from here on in. Which means the Italians will win. By diving. Sigh.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 13:53:06 +0000

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldcup/2006/07/why_i_want_germany_to_win_the.html

By: DC

DC — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 13:12:22 +0000

Wasn’t “the Smoking Dog” by any chance was it Tony?

By: tony

tony — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 12:42:19 +0000

Walking past an English bar in Lyon during the Argentina-Mexico game, I happened to look in at the precise moment Mexico scored. The cheering was very loud and quite malicious, I felt. The anti-English thing in Ireland is far less than it once was, for obvious reasons, and there is a degree of affection for the English side that there mightn’t once have been. The turning point, IMO, was the time England were knocked out by Argentina, and Beckham was sent off. I remember being struck by how Irish people seemed quite sympathetic, on the whole. This would not have been the case in the 80s. I recommend Fintan O’Toole’s fascinating article “Imagining Scotland” in Granta 56: an Irish perspective on the curious paradoxes of Scottish nationalism.

By: abbycromby

abbycromby — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 12:29:39 +0000

Well, chalk me up as a (lonely, it seems) France supporter, out of admiration for Ribery and Zidane. Hopefully a France V Germany final—a good result either way. Portugal? Ick.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 12:12:50 +0000

Going all the way back to the heady days of 1990 I distinctly remember sitting in a room full of students all of whom wanted Germany to beat Argentina and my sympathies were with Germany this time around as well.

Probably because the two times we’ve been knocked out of the world cup by Argentina there was a certain amount of gamesmanship going on – the Hand of God, Simione’s theatrical collapse whereas the two confrontations between England and Germany in 1990 and 1996 were both pretty decent matches. It’s difficult to love Germany because they always win, but they generally win fairly.

The famous exception to this is the 1982 world cup where their match with Austria was blatantly fixed and Toni Schumacher should have been sent off for an x-rated challenge when Patrick Battiston was clear on goal in the semi-final. Which made the 1986 final between much the same German team and Maradona’s lot absolutely unbearable…