My OperaFootball is still a stupid game
Sunday, March 22, 2009 5:09:10 PM
It's been waning for some years now but I had thought my interest this season in football had diminished beyond the point of no return. Then something like this happens and threatens to reel me back in.
If it weren't for the fact that number two son has really become interested in Spurs over the last year or two, I'd probably not bother to watch Match of the Day.
How has number two son's interest in Spurs come about, given that I spent the first dozen years of his life trying in vain to interest him in football? It's all down to Football Manager, the computer game, so far as I can tell.
Weird.
I have three boys and they've never been particularly interested in football, but I am probably judging them by my own obsessive interest which lasted from the time I could walk to about the time I finally gave up hope of making it as a professional footballer (round about the age of 34).
I can still vividly recall the time England achieved what probably still ranks as the luckiest of * 5-1 victories, against Germany in a World Cup qualifier. "Come in and watch this!" I said to my sons who were, inexplicably, playing out in the street on a warm summer's evening instead of quaking nervously all the way through an England international match. "You'll never see this again for as long as you live, England stuffing Germany at football."
Not in the slightest bit interested. No historical perspective, I suppose.
Unlike me. I watched the 1966 World Cup Final between England and West Germany in a cafe in Spain, where the English were outnumbered about three-to-one by the Germans, and the Spanish didn't seem too keen on us winning either. It was tough on a young kid when England went one-nil down and I had to go for a walk to relieve the pressure.
Not as bad as England-Poland 1973, of course, but I digress.
Remember that European Cup Final where Liverpool were 0-3 down at half-time and being embarrassed by a cocky and complacent AC Milan? The first five minutes of the second half convinced me something extraordinary was about to happen and so I called down the boys from their bedrooms. "Come and watch this! Liverpool are three-nil down at half time in the European Cup Final but they look well up for it in the second half. This could be the greatest comeback in the history of European football."
If only I had been a member of Betfair back then.
Not one of them came down to watch the match with me. Far too interested in MSN Messenger.
So, should I let Spurs back in my life? I'm probably going to have to, because number 2 son wants to start seeing a few live matches, and what's £70 spent on 2 hours of frustration, despair and tribulation in the company of 36,000 foul-mouthed deluded maniacs to a man of my means?
* England really should have been 0-2 down at half-time and buried.
If it weren't for the fact that number two son has really become interested in Spurs over the last year or two, I'd probably not bother to watch Match of the Day.
How has number two son's interest in Spurs come about, given that I spent the first dozen years of his life trying in vain to interest him in football? It's all down to Football Manager, the computer game, so far as I can tell.
Weird.
I have three boys and they've never been particularly interested in football, but I am probably judging them by my own obsessive interest which lasted from the time I could walk to about the time I finally gave up hope of making it as a professional footballer (round about the age of 34).
I can still vividly recall the time England achieved what probably still ranks as the luckiest of * 5-1 victories, against Germany in a World Cup qualifier. "Come in and watch this!" I said to my sons who were, inexplicably, playing out in the street on a warm summer's evening instead of quaking nervously all the way through an England international match. "You'll never see this again for as long as you live, England stuffing Germany at football."
Not in the slightest bit interested. No historical perspective, I suppose.
Unlike me. I watched the 1966 World Cup Final between England and West Germany in a cafe in Spain, where the English were outnumbered about three-to-one by the Germans, and the Spanish didn't seem too keen on us winning either. It was tough on a young kid when England went one-nil down and I had to go for a walk to relieve the pressure.
Not as bad as England-Poland 1973, of course, but I digress.
Remember that European Cup Final where Liverpool were 0-3 down at half-time and being embarrassed by a cocky and complacent AC Milan? The first five minutes of the second half convinced me something extraordinary was about to happen and so I called down the boys from their bedrooms. "Come and watch this! Liverpool are three-nil down at half time in the European Cup Final but they look well up for it in the second half. This could be the greatest comeback in the history of European football."
If only I had been a member of Betfair back then.
Not one of them came down to watch the match with me. Far too interested in MSN Messenger.
So, should I let Spurs back in my life? I'm probably going to have to, because number 2 son wants to start seeing a few live matches, and what's £70 spent on 2 hours of frustration, despair and tribulation in the company of 36,000 foul-mouthed deluded maniacs to a man of my means?
* England really should have been 0-2 down at half-time and buried.
