a rather good Guardian piece my friend Justin found

[winterbadger]

America, enjoy being an underdog...

Comments

[silme.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'll the merits of Theo Walcott! Compared to Wayne Rooney at that age (or even now, at his great age of 20), Walcott is a media dream. Rooney just sounds stupid. Walcott sounds far more sophisticated. ;)

(I have students wanting to know if they'll get to watch England play during school time. Sorry, but they're not booked to play during school time, kids! ;)

[azbound.livejournal.com]

What I found remarkable is that ROI isn't in it. Good grief - now I *have* to root for the U.S.!!!

[winterbadger]

Yeah, I don't know much about Walcott, but Rooney seems like the anti-role model in many ways.

[winterbadger]

Yeah, Switzerland won second place in Ireland's qualifying group (after France). So Chris and Melissa will be hearing a lot about footy in Switzerland, but Ireland will have to find something else to fixate on for June. :-) Cheering against England, I imagine. ;-)

[silme.livejournal.com]

'Discuss' is the missing word. ;)

[silme.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah... There were kids wanting to end their educations early because Rooney did.

Right now, due to the media (BBC news on right now!), I know more about Rooney's foot than my own. :(

[silme.livejournal.com]

Have I ever told you the story of being in Charles de Gaulle airport during World Cup 1998, when a flight full of drunken Glaswegans landed? :)

[winterbadger]

No! :-) I hope they were nice drunken Glaswegians. I understand the Tartan Army is usually better behaved than some of their southern counterparts, but that's a very relative statement.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Well, they exited the plane, all wearing their tartans and football jerseys, led in by a piper in blue warpaint. Every man was carrying an open tin of beer.

To be honest, they were more amusing than anything.

I was in Paris during the '98 World Cup by sheer coincidence. Good time to visit the Notre Dame = big game going on across town. ;)