There’s always something missing init. From 2000-2008 England had an insane team (in my opinion) and a debilitating dearth of togetherness, affection, desire, organisation. Now, we have a spirit and organisation, but a distinctly mediocre team. If Hodgson had been the manager 6-8 years ago, we’d have had a chance. Personally, it pains me to watch an ageing and past-it Steven Gerrard rally his legs and drive one last time, after years in his prime of being played out of position, or wasted in deep midfield, handed the captaincy when it’s too late. By the time Parker was picked, he was too old. They clung on for penalties, bizarrely, and then lost, not so bizarrely. Rooney wasn’t fit. Why Pirlo wasn’t manmarked is a mystery. If the opposition has one standout player, it makes sense. It’s only futile if they have 3/4 geniuses, like Spain, as one pundit said the other night (can’t remember who).

I haven’t cared since we lost to Portugal in identical circumstances in 2006, midday-drunk in a bar in Newquay, despondent and angry. Consequently, I am not upset. What am I feeling? Mild annoyance, maybe. I dunno. Ashley Young is definitely in my XI comprised of overrated players, and I don’t know why he was on the pitch. All I do know is that Pirlo may have scored one of those audacious, cuntish penalties tonight, but he missed in Istanbul, and Ashley Cole may have missed tonight (still a legend), but he scored against Bayern last month. Both small occurrences within epic moments for English football. Would I swap Liverpool and Chelsea’s Champions League victories for England going through tonight, just to lose (probably) to the Germans? No fucking way. 

Sticking up for Portugal now, cuz Ronaldo’s a legend, the Germans are twats, and Spain’s inane metronomic back and forth is boring as fuck.