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player ready...The USA may not have made it to this year’s FIFA World Cup, but I’m glad to report the greatest soccer tournament on the planet is still going strong without the team.
For anyone who doesn’t know what the World Cup is, it’s a competition that happens once every four years. Unlike the World Series, it actually features teams from different countries, so I can see how you might not realize how big a deal this is. This time around, the games are being hosted by Russia, so I guess one benefit about the U.S. not playing is it will be the only time in the past two years there won’t be accusations of collusion.
In many ways, the England team, of which I’m a proud supporter, are just like the Cubs. Their last big win was 52 years ago and they haven’t come close since. We spent years being the underdogs in a sport which we invented, if you don’t take into account a little ball kicking in ancient China. But just like the 2016 Cubs team, this year we think we have the dream team and we’re going all the way!
Remember back to those heady days when there were huge W flags flying everywhere and everyone was suddenly a Cubs fan? When you could go into a bar and cheer on the Cubs with 500 of your closest friends? When fans flocked onto the streets and there was so much excitement in the air you almost needed an inhaler to breathe? Well, back in England, that’s what the atmosphere is like now. Not usually known for their patriotism, the English fly flags (white with a red cross, not the Union Jack), paint their faces and decorate their houses.
You may have noticed I’ve made no reference to being British. Collectively, the Scots, Welsh, northern Irish and English are Brits, but we’re not a United Kingdom when it comes to soccer. It’s every country for itself!
Can you imagine if you were the only Cubs fan watching the game in a place where no one cared? Where people said, “It’s a girls’ game” or simply, “I don’t understand what all the fuss is about?” Luckily for us ex-pats here in Naperville, there is a place where we can go and watch soccer together just like the old days, although to be fair, it was pretty terrifying to be trapped with a bunch of rowdy football fans who’d been drinking all day in a stuffy pub. Of course, it’s nothing like that at family-friendly Quigley’s Irish Pub in downtown Naperville. Fans gather to watch Premier League Football most weekends, but this is special. It’s our Superbowl, or it will be if, sorry, when, we get to the final.
Last weekend, we gathered around TV screens to watch what turned out to be one of the greatest matches of the World Cup ever, unless you happen to be from Panama. We thrashed that team 6-1. Captain Harry Kane scored a panama hat trick as the crowd at Quigley’s went wild, at least as wild as you can be before 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning over a full Irish breakfast.
Carl Fletcher and Martin Bell watched the game before heading off to St Charles, where they were playing for the Naperville Strikers, an over-40s’ soccer team.
“I think the England team is better than any time in the last 10 years,” said Fletcher, whose regular team to follow is Everton. “I think we should make it to the quarter finals and then anything can happen. We always watch games here because we like the atmosphere, meet other ex-pats and I can get a better full English than my wife makes!”
His friend may have said something too, but he’s Scottish, so as I said before, that doesn’t count. Sorry, Bell.
At another table, I met a family who wasn’t English at all. Virginia Blatt is a former Quigley’s employee who came back to watch the game with her daughter. Penelope, 10, told me she’s a keen soccer player.
“Yes, I hear only girls play here,” I said as our men showed off their athletic prowess on the TV screen behind me.
“I have some boys in my league, too,” she corrected me. “I’ve been playing for five years. I like working with my feet.”
Manchester United supporter Karen Roberts has lived in Naperville for 12 years.
“It’s my first time watching a game at Quigley’s,” she said. “I have an England flag on my car, but it’s not the same. I miss the energy you get watching football back home, but this is the next best thing.”
John Narbett is about to become an American citizen after living here for 12 years, but he’s proud to say he’ll be keeping his British citizenship, too. His young children have grown up learning about soccer because back in the day, their father was a professional football player who played for Oxford United.
“The further you get from England, the less hype there is about their chances,” he said. “It’s really over-hyped back home, so somehow I feel more hopeful here. When you think about the size of our country, it really is quite amazing what we have produced.”
Ian Parr has more of a connection to the World Cup than the rest of us. Back in our golden year, 1966, he attended the semi-finals.
“I was only 8 years old but I remember it; it was a game-changer,” he said. “The game has changed a lot since then. It’s a lot more athletic today, much more physical.”
Like Parr, I am old enough to remember the heady days of the 1966 World Cup and can definitely see some similarities between that champion team and today’s. For one thing, both teams had players with unusual names. In 1966, we had Nobby Stiles. In 2018, we have Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and yes, I realize I’m the last person to call out people with stupid names. All I can say is, it’s a good thing the latter has broad shoulders or they’d never fit his name on the back of his shirt.
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One thing that is very different, of course, is that in 1966, I lived within walking distance of Wembley Stadium where the final was played. Now, I’m not even on the same continent. I admit I haven’t made an effort to be part of the ex-pat community here in Naperville because if I wanted to be surrounded with English people all the time, I’d never have moved here. But sometimes, when there’s an event so huge, so exciting that it makes you proud to be English, it’s nice to celebrate together.
Go England! Fingers crossed that this will be our year, and if not, there’s always 2022.