‘Ere we go [insert football team of choice], ‘ere we go!

Today sees the kick off of the 2006 World Cup. I don’t know about you, but a) I really do not want to see another Brazil/England debacle, nor a Germany/US one and b) I don’t want to be stuck wearing a Landon Donovan jersey outside of Wembley if the US place higher than England. Having been a football (that’s right, I said FOOTBALL) fan since I was knee high to a bar stool, I am excited to see England enter the cup with a strong team (we’re not talking about the injured players people!).

According to the Cup schedule I am stuck waiting until Saturday in order to watch my beloved Lions play against Paraguay in Group B. In the mean time, we have Germany v. Costa Rica at noon and Poland v. Ecuador at 3 p.m. (both being shown at Ireland’s Four Courts in Clarendon). Although I would love to see the Germany v. Costa Rica match (a friend predicts the final score to be 2-1 – I’m thinking either 3-1 or 2-0 but am non-committal). I highly doubt that there’s a Georgetown bar showing the match, but someone, please prove me wrong, Bueller?), and thus will skip out of the office early to catch the latter match at Four Courts.

The front page of yahoo’s world cup site touts a Beckham out to emulate Moore article. Upon first glance (after foaming out the mouth like a rabid dog) I am outraged that anyone would try to compare Becks with England’s favourite Bobby Moore (the only Englishman to lift the FIFA World Cup). Upon second thought, I realize that Becks is probably the strongest chance England have of pushing through to a win. It hasn’t gone unnoticed that it’s been 40 years since England last lifted the Cup on German soil. With strong players like Cole, Gerrard, Carragher, Owen and Rooney (he’d better be bloody fit now that they’re sending Defoe home), I like England’s chances more than ever. Will a fit Beckham make all the difference? Will we see a repeat of the ’02 Cup? We’ll find out over the next month.