Tag: sport

What an entirely nail-biting match that was, and how very, very depressing. I imagine most of the country was watching as Michael Owen scored for us in two and a half minutes. I made the tube and the train, which were – I am certain – much quieter than they normally would be at 7pm. I just made it into the house just in time for the start and for Owen’s goal, and was watching all the way through to Helder Postiga’s equaliser after 83 minutes for Portugal. So everything went to extra time, and we all had to watch for another 30 minutes. Thank goodness for Frank Lampard, who kept us in it at the end of the second half of extra-time, but who on earth would want to sit and watch those penalties?

 [match summary]

Despite the result, it’s games like this that make me enjoy the game of football!

Well, I guess that there’s not a lot to say. There is only one topic of conversation in London today, and it all revolves around football.

There have been football songs on the radio all day (it’s simply the worst music you can listen to), and there is an excitement outside. Everywhere you go, there are English flags, which is really quite pleasing to see. Now, all we have to do is win!

Thousands of England fans are gathering in Lisbon ahead of tonight’s crunch Euro 2004 quarter-final against hosts Portugal.

[Sky News]

The only other thing of interest I can come up with is that, apparently, “Simon Le Bon himself has heaped praise on boyband Phixx’s cover version of the 1984 Duran Duran smash hit Wild Boys” [source]. And even I don’t think that’s interesting.

So I’ll leave it at that and go and watch the match.So I’ll leave it at that and go and watch the match.

For England’s next match (v Switzerland today) I may be in a pub with a bunch of die-hard soccer fans. Apparently, while watching the beautiful game, it’s inappropriate to say, “Wow – did you see how far he kicked that?” [BBC News]. Must remember that!