Colin Randall watches another England dream fade …
At half time, we hoped the sense of injustice felt would impel England to victory after a calamitous error by match officials prevented a stirring fightback from 0-2 to 2-2. A bit like 1908 when, as every schoolboy should know, Sunderland were so enraged by an appalling penalty decision, which allowed Newcastle to go in 1-1 instead of 1-0 down, that we went on the score eight more in the second half.
Images: Rapidgamer
THIS POSTING NOW SUPERSEDED BY: Germany 4, auf wiedersehen England
We were hoping to feel able to use a less jubilant image of German fans at half time. And after a disastrous start it should have been possible as Lampard’s shot came down from the underside of the bar far enough into the goal to fit at least another ball between it and the line.
Incredibly, the ref and linesman must have been quietly humming Deutschland über alles to themselves; they imagined it no more a goal than Rooney’s earlier blast into row Z.
Pete Sixsmith appreciates an urgent new dimension to the World Cup after the often turgid fare of the group stage. England fans of a nervous disposition should stop reading before the end …
After the chess games of the Group stages, the cynicism of the likes of Portugal and Chile and the ineptitude of England, we saw some real football today, with belting games in the first of the Round Two games.
Spoilt for choice, Salut! Sunderland has three writers lined up to share their thoughts on yesterday’s games, and the new phase of the World Cup more generally. Let’s start with Bill Taylor‘s eulogy to an absorbing encounter between Ghana and the USA …
If England and Germany play half as well today as the United States and Ghana played yesterday, it’ll be a very good game.
Finding a German fan to preview England v Germany for Salut! Sunderland was not as easy as you’d think. A bit like looking for someone from Stoke City. Even Thomas Hauser failed to respond. I was almost reduced to popping to the supermarket or beach a mile from me in the south of France: loads to be found there. In the nick of time, someone came back from a Facebook site called Deutschland/German/Allemagne, where Germany and England fans have been trading insults but perfectly nice people lurk too. So thanks to Susanne Dornheim, even if reading this introduction will have taken longer than it will to peruse her short, sharp replies …
Salut! Sunderland: England 4 West Germany 2. Germany 1 England 5. But lots of German wins, too. What is it to be this time?
I hope Germany will win I think we have a real chance
England v Germany. Not a sporting occasion that always brings out the best in Her Majesty’s Tabloid Press.
Sitting here, I am surrounded by the efforts of 300+ young people in their recent GCSE History exam.
A number of the questions on that paper rake over Britain’s stormy relationship with Germany in the 20th Century, a relationship that is about to be tested again at Bloemfontein on Sunday.
It may or may not have been too convincing in the end, but the job in hand was to get a win, and that’s what England did when others, notably the French, haven’t been able to do so.
Salut! Sunderland expects a lot of SAFC fans to reflect on the identity of our scorer, Jermain Defoe, and wonder whether Darren Bent would have done as well with the cross (or, indeed, have made a mark in the earlier, unimpressive England games).
THIS POSTING HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED BY England 1 Slovenia 0: job done
Sod’s law prevails and if, like me, you are in France and don’t have Canal+, the usual option, TF1, is of no use since it is showing the unbelievably drab Algeria v USA game (0-0 five minutes into the second half).
Kurdistan Goals, or whichever of those iffy internet streams is prepared to give a picture from the England game, is doing so only sporadically, with two competing commentaries, one of them in English, but both ahead of the stuttering images.
It used to be early exits of England, after embarrassing outbreaks of hooliganism, that people most wanted to happen at the major international football events.
Now, it’s the turn of the French. And that’s just how the French themselves see it.
Roman Jerebic* – or, more splendidly, ????? ??????? – is a man in South Africa, and in a hurry. He …