It’s crunch time. It’s time to sort out the men from the boys. It’s time to stand up and be counted. At times like this you need to know who your friends are. It’s time to go big or go home. It’s do or die. They’ve got to play as a team and win. This is for all the marbles. There are no easy games. English football’s future is at stake here. It’s the Dunkirk spirit. They have to take this game by the scruff of the neck. They need to move up a gear. The supporters need to be the 12th man. They have to stay in the hunt. The players need to play out of their skin. This is a potential banana skin. This is no pushover. They need to shoulder the blame. It’s down to the wire. They need to seal the deal. It’s squeaky bum time. They have to stamp their authority. They have to run their socks off. It’s never say die. They have to grind out a result here. It’s all to play for. Because when the going gets tough…
[With thanks to Danger Here for many of these clichés.]
Dear England, do you think you could do something for me tomorrow ? Well not just for me but for a few of my mates as well. They told me they’ll be watching. It’s a simple request and one that I know you can fulfil. Could you win the match that you are going to be playing against … have to check here, not 100% cert… Slo…Slovenia. By the looks it doesn’t seem that you are all that bothered about it but me and me mates would really appreciate it.
Oh and if Macclesfield born Crouchy gets on and and bags one, could he dedicate it to Francis. (He hated it when his mum called him that). He’s one of my other mates who’s sadly not going to be around to watch any more.
If he does nod one in… (I hear that he’s not bad on the floor for a big lad) and bulge the back of the old onion bag – Instead of doing the robot dance in celebration, could he pull out a replica of Little Frank from under his shirt and give us a rendition of Football Is Really Fantastic. (Stuart Pearce will to run up the sideline with a Bontempi to accompany him). If you could do this it would be really fantastic. Ta.
Oh and P.S… I think that our American cousins are playing somewhere at the same time. It would also be nice if they could win (but only by a single goal mind ! Don’t get greedy) their soccerkickball game and join in with the next shindig which is scheduled for this coming weekend. Great ? Awesome !
– Some musical accompaniment for the teams and their exploits…
Both the England and USA songs are done by two acts who actually hail from the New World.
Firstly the song for the U.S. Soccer team penned by the popular L.A based beat combo Weezer:
“It’s going to be difficult for Rivers Cuomo to think about music at Bonnaroo this weekend. While his band, Weezer, will perform Saturday, the event coincides with the World Cup soccer match between the US and England. Cuomo is such a fan of the sport that he wrote an unofficial theme song for the US team called ‘Represent.’
‘Represent’ isn’t the first song Cuomo has written about the US team. In 2006, he wrote ‘My Day Is Coming.’ Penned after the US team lost in the first round, it was more of a somber tune. “I tried to write an anthem, but it came out to be almost despairing rather than triumphant,” he told NPR’s Terry Gross.
As he explains in a video for ‘Lover in the Snow,’ Cuomo began kicking soccer balls soon after he learned to walk. But he wasn’t able to pursue the sport more because one of his legs was longer than the other. After painful surgery to correct the leg as an adult, he frequently plays in amateur leagues in Boston and California. Soccer frequently comes up in Weezer videos, and the band has been known to sport soccer uniforms in its promotional photos.”
» Weezer – Represent |
This next one is a rather tongue-in-cheek guide posted on The Guardian website by those cheeky Californian scamps We Are Scientists, on how to write the perfect World Cup song:
“The football anthem occupies a genre all of its own. It must delicately balance patriotic spirit, jovial sportsmanship and a lack of delicacy. Artists including New Order, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles have entered the maze and found their way out the other side. Others – such as Madonna, U2 and the Beatles – have notoriously crashed on the rocks, ending promising careers and spending decades wandering along pop music’s abandoned outer banks. The latest big success story is, of course, us. Here’s how we did it….”
Good timing
“….Finally, you must release your anthem during a World Cup year, and during football season. Madonna failed to follow this rule, burying her football anthem at the end of a Christmas record released 18 months after the World Cup. Bob Dylan knew this rule all too well, and has ended up letting it control his career, releasing a new album like clockwork every four years immediately prior to the World Cup.
For us, the trick has been finding a healthy middle ground. We don’t want to follow Dylan’s trail into the wilderness any more than we want to give up a good thing. We’ve decided, as a compromise between the two sides, to record new anthems for each of the next five World Cups, and then to hang up our songwriting cleats.”
» We Are Scientists – Goal! England |
Extra Time…
Received a message sent by jascha from laterna magica who pointed me towards an England song which was done only in the last few days and was just added to You Tube. It stars The Chippendoubles who were on Britain’s Got Talent recently. They also Don’t Wanna Go Home:
So come on them old chaps. Pip pip.
Don’t let the
Go up.