Monday, June 05, 2006
Sending off the team
What a send-off. 70,000 people were packed into Old Trafford to witness England score 6 goals against a very poor Jamacia team. It was men against boys as Peter Crouch scored a hat-trick.....I repeat.....as Peter Crouch scored a hat-trick (40-1 for the Golden Boot). The strange 2pm kick-off time was at the request of the BBC who wanted to cover some horse race as well.
After the first 45 minutes, the game was over as a contest as England led 4-0. We had started the game without the injured Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville as well as Ashley Cole and John Terry who had picked slight knocks. Apart from Rooney who has a scan on Wednesday, everyone else should be fine. Reports over the weekend said that Rooney had been kicking a ball in training which is the news all England fans wanted to hear. A fit White Pele is vital to our chances in the later stages of the tournament.
But onto more important and disturbing things. It raised it's ugly head against Hungary and was again with us on Saturday. I'm talking about Mexican Waves. Those hideous happy-clappy things crowds do when they aren't capable of creating a proper atmosphere. It started back in the World Cup in 1986 and has sadly caught on. For years 2 things have been unofficially banned from England games; Mexican waves and club shirts. We don't wear club colours to prevent division amongst fans due to club rivalries. We are all there to support England. We don't do Mexican Waves because we don't do something to comply. We are England fans, different from everyone else in the world. I remember in the ABSA Stadium, Durban in May 03 when the whole crowd was trying to get a 'wave' going. As it game round to our section, we booed and jeered. In short, Mexican Waves are gayer than Wales. We don't like them and we don't do them. Any England fan who says they like them have probably only been going to games for about 12 months.
4 days until I fly out, 5 days until our opening match !!!!!
// posted by Big Blue Marble @ 5:12 pm 
