Be Excellent To Each Other

So, England are in Group C with the USA and Algeria.
That can only be good news.

If we can't beat them we* don't deserve to go through.

Obviously.

*Slovenians.

USA are pretty good actually. Probably the best team from Pot 2. Algeria and Slovenia look pretty ordinary on paper, though. I can't see an obvious Group of Death.

Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast?

*gets back from telly room*

Yeah, that.

Another International competition where Scottish people get to adopt a team and cheer them on since Scotland fell to pieces when George Burley took over and lost any hope of qualifying *sigh*.

As always, I will happily support England. Although at the same time, I totally understand why most Scottish people don't. Do Welsh and Northern Irish people have the same level of anti-English feeling in international competitions? Should international have a capital letter?!

That's exactly why there should be a United Kingdom team. Plus, it would really piss the Scots off...

What, the English team plus Ryan Giggs?

Yes. "I only support two teams: Wales and Whoever is playing England"

Although I'm happy to support England. There's a lot of hypocrisy in Wales. Most people support a Premiership team, but won't shout for England even though the Welsh football team are
a) bunk
b) never in the competition anyway

Whaaa..? I'm not even supporting England.

Yeah there are plenty of Scots who enjoy watching the premiership (no wonder with the SPL etc etc) but the problem with the England international team is the press coverage. It really can be very very irritating at times.
The worst example I've heard in recent times was actually a Man Utd game (after me saying that's not the problem ) when Celtic were playing Man Utd in Europe. The commentator said that Celtic were the first Scottish team to win the major European competition but Man Utd went on to become the first British team.
People in Scotland (and I imagine a similar thing happens in Wales) like to see how the media deal with succesful Scottish sports stars. For example Andy Murray has been referred to as British quite a lot when English stars are often referred to as English. I'm sure a lot of it is now just because we are hyper aware of it but it is a problem.

Having said all that, I support England.

For me: Wales > England > everyone else.

*dons facepaint*
*prepares to learn every little detail about algeria*

Murray was 'Scottish' when he said he didnae support England for that tournament. Euro 2008, probably.

And whenever he loses, natch.

yep, that's pretty much it. Also, I just reread what I wrote- I always think that my posts sound dead serious when I read them back! Like me saying It sounds like I'm taking this really serious and preparing to lobby government! Please everyone be assured that I am rarely very serious about much and don't mean to sound as melo-dramatic as I may often come across!

Thing is, the English hate all the '66 bollocks the media spew out just as much. What ignorant Scots seem to forget in this though is that some of the people responsible for this crappy coverage are Scottish. Hansen especially is uber-complicit. Forest can't play a game against a Welsh team without getting anti-England songs though, either... certainly not any more than we can get the bastards to sing at us in Welsh

Thing is - where your sport goes on Britain, you are British and where your sport subdivides into British countries, you are Welsh, English, whatever. If a few noisy idiots want to complain about Murray being called British as I've heard happen they want to be shouting equally loudly about the likes of Mansfield's Kris Commons playing for the Scottish football team, I think.

Shit. Only just registered that the second round game is going to be over Glasto weekend

Ah well. Its only Serbia

Fair Enough. It's a change from our ridiculous group in 2006 (Angola, Mexico and Iran). Still, the French were very lucky to be in the South Africa group, as i was expecting another group of death.

Cant you even remember 60 years ago?!?

I'm bored of the hype already, and it's only been one day, but already the tabloids are crowing about England and we have the obligatory 84 million photos of old man Beckham everywhere, because, as ever, everything is always about him.