On the radio yesterday, I heard that the UK gutter press has once again started up all its usual xenophobic, "We won the war" type of crap. All this garbage is written and read by people who never got closer to suffering than to be denied another portion of chocolate while they were watching "The Great Escape". Why oh why do we produce these cretins? As the father of two German speaking children, I want to get hold of these shit mongers in the press and kick them down a very long flight of stairs. It makes us look cheap, petulant and immature. Very few of the servicemen who had anything to do with that part of history have such a glib and ignorant attitude. Most of them have a humble, "There but for the grace of God..." attitude.
Be that as it may, I will still be on the edge of my seat, praying for an unlikely upset in the knowledge that it will almost certainly be a long, miserable journey home through troops of celebrating German fans.
It looks unlikely that both sides will finish the game with eleven players as the referee sends off someone in 70% of the games at which he officiates. Let us hope that the occasionally quick tempered Rooney, Gerard etc will be on their very best behaviour for the entire match!
Germany's best player so far, Ozil, has just suffered a bereavement and the other fine attacking midfield player, Bastian Schweinsteiger, may not be fully recovered from injury. The Brazilian born striker Cacau is out. England really have no excuses. I will just be hoping that England keep cool heads and acquit themselves reasonably well. This will probably be the final match of England's "Golden Generation" - who actually have never come close to winning anything. We can expect resignations after the match and I believe it will be several years before England again have a side, which can hope to compete at this level. For the time being, let's make the best of this afternoon!