football

I’ve done it again – fleshly tried to give an opinion about football in the pub! Time and time again I do this – am I ever going to learn?

I just don’t watch football enough and never have. I played it a little as a kid and also I played a little in the navy as well as a small amount of 5 a side since leaving. However I’ve never had the passion. I’ve never truly believed. I was not really all that good as a kid and didn’t care enough to put the effort in to improve and so this situation never changed.

Add all this together and you get to where I am. I like football, I quite like playing it and I quite like watching it, but I know absolutely nothing about it whatsoever. I only really like watching the England games and even then only if I can be bothered. It’s the lack of effort, of putting the time into caring about a sport that blocks my knowledge.

My friends are all different. They have followed clubs since childhood and played at various levels too. Their attachment to a team has meant that they have accrued years of experience with which to make opinions and judgements with; whereas I just quite like watching the big games.

The thing is though that with me being like I am, I still don’t see why this should exclude me from having an opinion. Why should I sit quietly all night whilst people discuss sport just because I don’t follow a club? It never works though; Mick always winds up shaking his head at me and smirking. It happened again tonight as we discussed the match against Belarus on Wednesday. I simply said that I though a young lad that had been on in the first half (first clue here is that I still don’t know his name) had played really well and probably had deserved the man of the match. After spending 5 minutes trying to describe who he was to the table I was immediately given the head shake. Apparently he did OK but still has a lot to learn and definitely won’t be in the World cup squad! He certainly wasn’t man of the match material. It was worth a try.

It’s always the same, on so many occasions I’ve made a fool of myself when watching a game in the pub. I will say something like “I know we aren’t winning but the defence is really good I think!” seconds before the commentator will slam the England Defence for making so many mistakes. If I say that Lennon is playing really well you can guarantee that within 5 minutes he will be substituted. I just have no idea what’s going on and I really need to try and remember it.

The only compensation I have is that none of that matters. The reason why I’m never scared to offer an opinion no matter how obvious it is to me that I’m bound to be wrong is because I like to see people pulling together and cheering up. On any table in any pub in the country where football is being discussed there may only be three or four moments across the whole evening where everyone is in agreement. This is fact. No one ever agrees with other people’s opinions, these people that have spent their whole lives loving and understanding football still cannot have a discussion about their sport for more than 5 minutes without disagreeing about it. This is the beauty of the sport, everyone’s view is different but everyone’s view is important. And so for those few moments where everyone shakes their head at me and as one agree that I’m wrong I feel the warmth of having brought them together! Joined rival supporters with opposing loyalties into one common agreement – that it’s my round!

Talking of which I’d better get these back to the table before the 2nd half – I’m hoping they will play Keegan because I miss his perm.