The Euros are about to begin, and England are gearing up for their first match on Sunday
Words by Alysia Georgiades
Three years ago the nation’s spirits were lifted by the England football team reaching the final four at the World Cup in Russia. Faces were painted red and white, flags were flying from house windows, and It’s Coming Home became the anthem of the summer.
When England won on penalties against Colombia to reach the quarter-finals, living rooms and pubs erupted with screams, cheers and celebrations. I was one of them, leaping up from the sofa as Dier’s penalty kick hit the back of the net, ending the assumption we never win shoot-outs. A state of euphoria spread across the country, along with newfound hope that we could go even further.
The night of the semi-final against Croatia I didn’t watch the game, but where I was I could hear murmurs of the score as phone screens lit up the room to check England’s progress. I knew the result by the time the night was over, and as I walked to the station the heartbreak of the loss could be felt in the air, in every face. People were consoling each other, because the team may have lost the match, but the entire nation felt the defeat.
That’s the effect sports can have. The belief and hope of success becomes infectious. The UK caught the bug when London hosted the Olympics at 2012, spirits were lifted when Andy Murray won Wimbledon a year later, and the success continued throughout the decade. Max Whitlock’s historic two golds within an hour at Rio in 2016. Adam Peaty’s world record winning form in the 100m and 50m breaststroke. Jenny Jones’ history-making slopestyle bronze and Lizzie Yarnold’s gold at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. Justin Rose’s Olympic gold in Rio and the women’s England squad’s third place finish at their World Cup in 2015.
The list goes on, but what is incredible is how win or lose, sport creates a human connection that few other events have the ability to do. Matthew Syed explains in his book, The Greatest, that no matter how trivial sport may seem, it reflects humanity at its greatest and its worst.
He writes in one of his articles titled The Story:
“The matches we watch on television are not ‘sport’. Not really. They are just the final paragraph, the flourish of trumpets at the end of a concerto. Sport, in its fullest sense, is the whole thing: the moderato, the adagio and the allegro.”
One of the best examples I can think of is British tennis player Marcus Willis’ journey to a second-round match against Roger Federer on Centre Court at Wimbledon. To people who don’t know the story, it doesn’t have much impact. But when you learn he wasn’t expecting to be in the tournament at all, our interest is piqued.
Willis made it into pre-qualifying due to a withdrawal. He won a wildcard to reach the qualifiers. Then played some of his best ever tennis to reach his first ever Grand Slam, which ended in a defeat against Federer, who himself said it was “one of the best stories in a long time in our sport”. It was a story that the entire nation got behind, and one Willis will never forget.
Syed’s idea of sport being the whole journey has never been more true in football. In recent years Leicester’s Premier League title was like a fairytale, with pretty much everyone hoping for the happy ending regardless of whether they supported the club. Even Liverpool’s winning streak and early Premier League victory during the 2019/20 season had the backing of football fans as a whole. Because it wasn’t only about the season, the matches, or the win. It was about the entire journey.
For England at the Euros it’s about believing in what many believe is impossible. For decades we have supported the team, but slowly lost hope in the prospect of winning. Their result in 2018 reignited a spirit we hadn’t seen in a while, and it’s returning even stronger for the Euros. Everyone is excited, the posters are back in the papers, and people are feeling positive about England’s chances.
There may be concerns over injuries in the team’s starting XI, but even England captain, Harry Kane, has shared his belief at his team’s chances this time around. “I feel like now we’ve had a bit more experience [since the 2018 World Cup], players in the biggest games for their club and obviously players who have played in that World Cup have had that experience as well,” he explained in a conversation with the official England podcast.
This kind of positive outlook on England’s chances spreads across the country, and it’s something Kane knows and loves about international tournaments. David Hytner describes the sense of community Kane felt while watching England play when he was younger. “It did not matter whether you were Tottenham or Arsenal, West Ham or Chelsea,” he writes, explaining how watching your national team instills happiness and “brings people together”, even when they lose.
This is the feeling we all felt when England played in Russia, and one we will all feel when we watch England play their first match of the tournament on Sunday. This sense of collectiveness across millions of households when the ball hits the post, or a strike is saved with seconds to go. Those edge-of-your-seat moments, the gasps and the smiles that will be on the faces of everyone watching at exactly the same time.
Football fever is well and truly back, and we have never been more ready.