The 11am kick offs here are maybe the worst, because you wake up and then you have to go about your day for like half the day, then completely stop for the football, and then after the football it's like 1-2pm and you have to do something with yourself.
I think I've successfully made it so that no one from work will bother me this morning. I'm going to try and go for a run now to get some of that pre-match anxious energy out.
Had a bullshit team 'awayday' at Kew today. It finished at 3:30 to allow Sheffield and Leeds colleagues time to get back before the game. Of course the district line is fucked so it's taking an age to get back to central London. I'll be okay but those guys are gonna miss the first half. Gutted for them.
So damn nervous. Haven't felt this nervous about a game ever I don't think, productivity at work for the last two hours is in the toilet. Feel like i'm going to need the toilet. Don't know what to do for two hours before it starts. Bag of nerves.
I'm also nervous about this game, but I think we can do it...just. I was fortunate to watch us win it 66, the emotion when I was 11 is nowhere near what I feel this time, I'm overwhelmed and every time I hear the 3 lions song I have water in my eyes!!
The 11am kick offs here are maybe the worst, because you wake up and then you have to go about your day for like half the day, then completely stop for the football, and then after the football it's like 1-2pm and you have to do something with yourself.
I think I've successfully made it so that no one from work will bother me this morning. I'm going to try and go for a run now to get some of that pre-match anxious energy out.
I'll be in Ye Olde King's Head in Santa Monica this morming. Thanks for the tip!
Nerves properly kicking in now, hard to feel confident with such nerves - players are coping better than us lot watching on a screen. Just give us 100% lads and leave it all out there.
My stomach is in absolute knots. I'm travelling. I haven't been eating properly, I've been up long hours, and I've been trying to juggle a lot of things in a place I never been to before. No one around me knows the significance of today; it's just another day to them. Time is running out before kickoff, and I still have no idea whether to watch it quietly in the room on a potentially unreliable stream, or venture out and watch it in some strange bar I know nothing about, with people who very probably won't see this as anything other than a spectacle, and a bit of afternoon entertainment, if they pay it any mind at all. On top of that, there's a part of me I find very hard to control, that actually thinks, beyond all reason, that the fate of it all relies on the decisions I make right now. How fucking (and I mean that!) absurd and egotistical can one be? But I know I'm not the only one thinking that way.
I'm three-quarters English (whatever that means), and I was born and raised in a small, remote colony that now has more in common with the US than the "motherland", but this means as much to me as it does to all of you. Maradona broke my ten year old heart in '86. I drifted away from football for a decade or so after that, before falling back in love with the game, and with Charlton. The Golden Generation toyed with the nation's emotions, threatening only headlines and endorsement deals. This England is different. This England have a clear path. This England is akin to Curbishley's Charlton, somewhat; where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but with a more potent mix of ability and hard work. More specifically, this team could give us that same "Charlton feeling" at the national level, that Curbishley gifted us. Obviously, these are world class athletes. But you need more than that to win the most coveted distinction. And this team might just have what it needs, this time. This England team is in with more than a chance of doing the unlikely (I can't actually write "it" explicitly, but you know exactly what "it" is. Wouldn't it be so absolutely absurd for them to go and do "it"? Would it be?). Of fulfilling the country's potential. Of realigning everything. Of actually staking a claim to the title, in front of the entire world.
The FA probably don't deserve "it". The Premier League probably don't deserve "it". The media, I'm pretty sure they don't deserve "it". We can and do argue endlessly about which players actually deserve "it". There are many who have attached themselves to the game, in one way or another, that don't actually deserve "it". But, for every supporter of England and English football across the country, and spread out across the world, with football scars deep in their hearts, they deserve "it" all so much. And "it" could very well happen. And it's fucking (and I do mean that!) scary, cos we can't do anything more than watch the afternoon unfold around us, whilst hoping for the best, and doing every absolutely meaningless thing in our power to will the until-recently-unthinkable into history. One way or another, we all will add more tissue to those scars today. Let's hope those scars become among the most valuable badges of honour we'll probably ever carry, and not more reminders of difficult and disappointing times, dashed dreams and the stuff of nightmares haunting us well into the future. Ever the optimist, but for the first time in a very long time, more in expectation than in hope, I think today we'll take another giant step towards "it". Because football is finally coming home, again.
Just leaving for the Half Door pub in Hartford CT. Watching with a bunch of 50+ year old ex pats acting like 16 year olds. Whatever happens it’s been fun and instilled some pride in English football again
My stomach is in absolute knots. I'm travelling. I haven't been eating properly, I've been up long hours, and I've been trying to juggle a lot of things in a place I never been to before. No one around me knows the significance of today; it's just another day to them. Time is running out before kickoff, and I still have no idea whether to watch it quietly in the room on a potentially unreliable stream, or venture out and watch it in some strange bar I know nothing about, with people who very probably won't see this as anything other than a spectacle, and a bit of afternoon entertainment, if they pay it any mind at all. On top of that, there's a part of me I find very hard to control, that actually thinks, beyond all reason, that the fate of it all relies on the decisions I make right now. How fucking (and I mean that!) absurd and egotistical can one be? But I know I'm not the only one thinking that way.
I'm three-quarters English (whatever that means), and I was born and raised in a small, remote colony that now has more in common with the US than the "motherland", but this means as much to me as it does to all of you. Maradona broke my ten year old heart in '86. I drifted away from football for a decade or so after that, before falling back in love with the game, and with Charlton. The Golden Generation toyed with the nation's emotions, threatening only headlines and endorsement deals. This England is different. This England have a clear path. This England is akin to Curbishley's Charlton, somewhat; where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but with a more potent mix of ability and hard work. More specifically, this team could give us that same "Charlton feeling" at the national level, that Curbishley gifted us. Obviously, these are world class athletes. But you need more than that to win the most coveted distinction. And this team might just have what it needs, this time. This England team is in with more than a chance of doing the unlikely (I can't actually write "it" explicitly, but you know exactly what "it" is. Wouldn't it be so absolutely absurd for them to go and do "it"? Would it be?). Of fulfilling the country's potential. Of realigning everything. Of actually staking a claim to the title, in front of the entire world.
The FA probably don't deserve "it". The Premier League probably don't deserve "it". The media, I'm pretty sure they don't deserve "it". We can and do argue endlessly about which players actually deserve "it". There are many who have attached themselves to the game, in one way or another, that don't actually deserve "it". But, for every supporter of England and English football across the country, and spread out across the world, with football scars deep in their hearts, they deserve "it" all so much. And "it" could very well happen. And it's fucking (and I do mean that!) scary, cos we can't do anything more than watch the afternoon unfold around us, whilst hoping for the best, and doing every absolutely meaningless thing in our power to will the until-recently-unthinkable into history. One way or another, we all will add more tissue to those scars today. Let's hope those scars become among the most valuable badges of honour we'll probably ever carry, and not more reminders of difficult and disappointing times, dashed dreams and the stuff of nightmares haunting us well into the future. Ever the optimist, but for the first time in a very long time, more in expectation than in hope, I think today we'll take another giant step towards "it". Because football is finally coming home, again.
Fine words Lookie. The bit I have highlighted sums up poetically what I feel.
Comments
I think I've successfully made it so that no one from work will bother me this morning. I'm going to try and go for a run now to get some of that pre-match anxious energy out.
Dunno what to do with myself.
Posting on here to overcome the nerves.
I'm actually on a train waiting for it to leave. Hurry the fuck up.
Only costs about £4 for an upgrade on your Standard ticket
Shame on you.
Totally confident about the result tonight.
IT'S COMING HOME.
I'm three-quarters English (whatever that means), and I was born and raised in a small, remote colony that now has more in common with the US than the "motherland", but this means as much to me as it does to all of you. Maradona broke my ten year old heart in '86. I drifted away from football for a decade or so after that, before falling back in love with the game, and with Charlton. The Golden Generation toyed with the nation's emotions, threatening only headlines and endorsement deals. This England is different. This England have a clear path. This England is akin to Curbishley's Charlton, somewhat; where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but with a more potent mix of ability and hard work. More specifically, this team could give us that same "Charlton feeling" at the national level, that Curbishley gifted us. Obviously, these are world class athletes. But you need more than that to win the most coveted distinction. And this team might just have what it needs, this time. This England team is in with more than a chance of doing the unlikely (I can't actually write "it" explicitly, but you know exactly what "it" is. Wouldn't it be so absolutely absurd for them to go and do "it"? Would it be?). Of fulfilling the country's potential. Of realigning everything. Of actually staking a claim to the title, in front of the entire world.
The FA probably don't deserve "it". The Premier League probably don't deserve "it". The media, I'm pretty sure they don't deserve "it". We can and do argue endlessly about which players actually deserve "it". There are many who have attached themselves to the game, in one way or another, that don't actually deserve "it". But, for every supporter of England and English football across the country, and spread out across the world, with football scars deep in their hearts, they deserve "it" all so much. And "it" could very well happen. And it's fucking (and I do mean that!) scary, cos we can't do anything more than watch the afternoon unfold around us, whilst hoping for the best, and doing every absolutely meaningless thing in our power to will the until-recently-unthinkable into history. One way or another, we all will add more tissue to those scars today. Let's hope those scars become among the most valuable badges of honour we'll probably ever carry, and not more reminders of difficult and disappointing times, dashed dreams and the stuff of nightmares haunting us well into the future. Ever the optimist, but for the first time in a very long time, more in expectation than in hope, I think today we'll take another giant step towards "it". Because football is finally coming home, again.
Might be a few goals so England 3 - 2 AET.
Come on England.
Three quarters means 75%.
Go to a bar and enjoy the memories.
And read this really good article!
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/44785165
Croatia bring in Brozovic for Kramaric.