The night before the England v Germany World Cup match I watched One Night in Turin, a documentary about the 1990 World Cup which has recently been launched on DVD. To an England supporter, there were a number of similarities between then and now; in 1990 England had lost its influential captain, Bryan Robson (in 2010 it lost Rio Ferdinand), and only just scraped through the group stage by chalking up two draws and an unconvincing 1-0 win in the final game over unfancied opposition. In 1990 England had a bit of luck in the knockout stage and went on to… actually that’s where the similarities end, unfortunately. This time Lady Luck proved she is a fickle mistress when Frank Lampard’s goal was deemed by the officials not to have crossed the line – even though it did. That should have put the scores level at 2-2 and then a newly galvanised England team could have gone on to win the game. Sadly it didn’t, and Germany racked up two more goals to break English hearts.
If there is a bright side to this it is that many UK consumers will now be fed up of football and turning their attention to other activities in an attempt to cheer themselves up. Money that would have gone on BBQs, crates of beer, flags for the cars and replica football tops will now be up for grabs; a little lingerie for the previously neglected ladies perhaps, or a saucy DVD to watch on that new 42” flatscreen?
Single men certainly couldn’t wait to get back to more pleasurable pursuits after the disappointment of seeing England limp out on the Sunday. Dating site Singles365.com reported that traffic to the site was up 134% over the previous Sunday, and up 187% during the week that followed. The peak registration time was just 32 minutes after the final whistle was blown.
Katie Mowe from Singles365.com commented: “We were genuinely stunned to see how many men registered on the site straight after the game – perhaps they were spurred on by a little Dutch courage! Our message to all the single ladies out there who are looking for a date is strike whilst the iron is hot – the football season will be start again in less than two months!”
Anyway, even if England had somehow beaten Germany, the next team waiting for them would have been the outrageously skilful Argentina – and be honest, who would your money have been on in that particular contest? Perhaps it was better to go out early ‘rather’ humiliated than later when they would have been ‘totally’ so.
And if there are any football supporters who want to experience an England World Cup attempt which had highs as well as lows, they should seek out that One Night in Turin DVD – it’s only £7 at Asda – even if we all know how it ends.
