Home is where heart is — even if it means backing England
Football is coming home. Again.
England is doing well at a major tournament — for the second time in three years — and New Zealand is lapping it up.
They are the talk of the town among football followers here, as we thrill to the exploits of Harry Kane’s team.
It’s a curious thing. Kiwis generally have a pathological dislike for the England rugby team, with the toffs, Twickenham and all that Swing Low, Sweet Chariot nonsense and don’t have much time for their cricketers, except maybe if they’re facing Australia.
But the football team? We can’t get enough. They’ve been widely covered and their clash with Ukraine tomorrow at 7am will surely be the most watched of the Euro quarterfinals here.
So what’s behind our love for the Three Lions? It helps that they are not regular rivals, unlike in rugby, cricket or many other sports. The All Whites have played England only twice, in 1991, to mark New Zealand Football’s centenary.
Contrast that with rugby, and several epic clashes in the past decade (and before), culminating in their 2019 World Cup semifinal.
An England tour and a test at Lord’s is a rite of passage for many Kiwi cricketers, while there have been some big Cricket World Cup clashes, most recently that famous final two years ago.
But the competition can’t explain everything. Even when New Zealand haven’t been involved, we have generally revelled in England’s defeats or struggles, in rugby, cricket and other sports.
But every two years, at a major football tournament, we adopt England again.
Many generations have grown up on English football. The FA Cup final was a household staple in the 1970s and ’80s, along with Big League Soccer highlights on Sundays.
But there seems to be something more. As a friend pointed out, maybe it is the emotion, the meaning, the deep desire that sweeps across England whenever a major tournament is held.
Winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup sparked massive celebrations, as have various Ashes successes, particularly in 1981 and 2005. But a football triumph would mean so much more, the celebrations would be off the charts and it’s hard not to get caught up in it, even from afar.
Perhaps we admire the patriotism and passion simply because it’s beyond us to sing, to celebrate, to live the occasion as English fans do.
Though they invented the game, England are usually underdogs at major tournaments and have endured some devastating failures.
Their win over Germany on Wednesday was just their second knockout victory in European Championship history.
My OE coincided with Euro ’96, hosted by England. It was a wonderful experience, as the nation got carried along, helped by a theme song still sung today.
But I’ve never witnessed such crushing disappointment about a sporting result — not even in the successive All Black failures between
1991 and 2007 — as on the night England were eliminated via a penalty shootout.
It had happened in 1990, and history repeated in 1998 and 2006. There was another loss to Germany in 2010, and the 2014 World Cup was a crushing disappointment, while Iceland knocked England out of the
2016 European Championships. But with each new iteration, with each new England team, hope springs eternal and the brilliant songs, chants and support are revisited again.
It’s intoxicating. It’s invigorating. And it’s come home again.