"A time to make friends" ends...

Before travelling to Germany for England's opening game, the Frankfurt police had issued the following statement to England supporters...

"According to the official motto “Germany 2006: A time to make friends“ we in Germany cordially want to welcome you as our guests. Right at the beginning your well known national football team which is rich in tradition will hold its first match against the national football team of Paraguay. With suspense the world is going to watch this first qualification match and the behaviour of the fans."

So welcoming. Of course, they did go on to say:

"Beside positive and unforgettable experiences there could be possibly some persons who misunderstand such a sporting event and discredit the football sport and the hospitality by their unacceptable manner...By acting in such a detrimental way few English persons will impair not only the reputation of the United Kingdom, but also especially the reputation of the English national football team."

OK, we get the message. To be honest, before making the trip I was concerned about the possibility of getting caught up in a mass brawl, and battered by riot police, but thankfully my experience could only be described as 'positive and unforgettable'. From the moment we watched Germany's opening game with thousands of German fans I could sense from the atmosphere that the trip would be trouble free. Could it be that it really is time to make friends with the Germans?

Having said that, we did come extremely close to witnessing a fight when this brave German guy decided to mingle with the English fans in the main square following England's stunning 1-0 win over Paraguay. It was actually all in good humour though, until he decided to shove an official camera-man into me, yes me, just as he was taking a photo of that group of England fans. The mood turned very quickly and he would have got a pasting if his mate hadn't pulled him towards the safety of the riot police, who simply circled around him until the English had calmed down (i.e., forgotten what they were angry about) and returned to decorating the statue with England attire.

Then of course, there was actually a mass brawl at another one of England's group games, so maybe it isn't time to make friends after all.

The World Cup itself was ultimately a disappointment. It started well enough, and by the end of the group stage I was thinking it could turn out to be one of the greatest ever. Unfortunately the knock-out stages ruined that possibility. Too many cagey 0-0 draws. Too much 'simulation'. Not enough class.

The final was good in patches, but for me it will be remembered for Zidane's astonishing exit from international football. Apparently, he had come back from retirement after having a dream, or vision from God, that he would win the World Cup for France. All of the talk in the news before the game was about Zidane, and whether he could indeed win France the World Cup in his last ever international game. In Paris, they had made preparations to project his image onto the Arc de Triomphe, as they had done eight years previously. On the radio that afternoon, I heard pundits commenting that if Zidane performed on the night, he could go down in history as one of the three greatest players of all time, alongside Pele and Maradonna.

It was all going so well. He'd audaciously scored France's only goal from the penalty spot, just (nearly did a Crouch) and had shown some glimpses of class. He was eight minutes away from going down as a legend, and he fucked it. His outrageous running head butt to Materazzi's chest reminded me of E Honda from Street fighter II.

Of course, every World Cup needs it's villain, and this year it was Cristiano Ronaldo's turn. His combination of whispering, winking, diving, and appealing for red cards has ensured he is this year's scapegoat to blame for everything that's wrong about the beautiful game. Particularly, England getting knocked out in the quarter final, again.

Mike probably rightly points out that Ronaldo has been unfairly vilified, as he is no worse than many other players in the World Cup. There's nothing like a good bit of vilification to perform a function for society though, is there? After all, English and French could boo and whistle in unison during the French semi-final, and English and German could stand arm in arm and boo their villain unanimously during the 3rd/4th place play-off game. Perhaps, thanks to Cristiano, we really have made friends with the Germans after all.