September 1, 2001

12:59 PM

England 5 Germany 1there is a god, and his name is Michael Owen
posted by quarsan (37 comments total)

Dude. Love those cross-sports metaphors: "And the much-heralded German engine room was completely eclipsed by Owen's go-faster stripes as England moved into pole position in the race for World Cup qualification."

I'm listening to the France-Chile test match right now.
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:10 PM on September 1, 2001

My god is called Jason McAteer!
G'wan the Irish :-)
posted by tomcosgrave at 1:16 PM on September 1, 2001

I think Dave Pearce in full 'Robot Wars' mode said it best: "THIS ISN'T JUST THE GREATEST GAME ENGLAND HAVE EVER PLAYED! IT ISN'T JUST THE BEST GAME EVER PLAYED! IT'S POETY!"

I'm not a huge fan of football, but even I gave out a cheer in the back of the cab tonight when I hear the score - role on the World Cup...
posted by feelinglistless at 1:21 PM on September 1, 2001

roll...
posted by feelinglistless at 1:21 PM on September 1, 2001

Typical Brit reaction: the greatest game ever played happens to be a demolition of Germany. It was a great game though! What are our chances in Japan? Anyone know the new odds???
posted by chaz at 1:36 PM on September 1, 2001

I'd say they'd be a good bet for the semi-final in Japan, honestly. If they keep up the pace against Albania and through later friendlies this year they'll be riding so high on confidence it'll take a huge effort to stop them. And as a nation, England is due for some major World Cup success, are they not?
posted by dopamine at 1:47 PM on September 1, 2001

Erm, no. England are not 'due' anything.
posted by the cuban at 1:48 PM on September 1, 2001

it is a very humiliating loss for germany. being a german fan (i seem to be in a minority here), i'm very pissed off. the english had a full strength side, while germany lacked the inspirational efforts of effenberg and scholl. and kahn must've had a really bad day. still, i'm confident germany will make it into the finals. voeller will see them through!

but on a related note, i wish more of these matches were shown here in canada on tv.
posted by dai at 1:55 PM on September 1, 2001

it's their time.
posted by elle at 1:56 PM on September 1, 2001

Quoting The Sun:

Germany boss Rudi Voller left the Olympic Stadium immediately after the defeat after receiving news that his father had suffered a heart attack while watching the match.

Voller's father is said to be in a stable condition in a Munich hospital.
posted by vowe at 2:56 PM on September 1, 2001

To cite a cliche: my two favorite teams are the US, and whoever's playing Germany. Congrats, England!

In other news, the US lost 3-2 to Honduras in one of the best games I've seen in months. The US should have gotten that PK at the end. Roll on US...er, I mean, sputter on US....

just get there somehow....
posted by jpoulos at 3:17 PM on September 1, 2001

Remember that study that found a 50% increase in heart attack deaths in men on the days of big soccer matches?
posted by aaron at 4:02 PM on September 1, 2001

aaron, the choice for any national team is based primarily on the merit of its pool of players, no matter where they play. of course, the buck stops at the manager, in england's case, sven. there are also other factors involved, such as injury and personal issues.

a prime example is owen hargreaves, who was born in canada. but son to a english father, he chose to play for england. since he's apparently quite good, england's manager chose him, much to our dismay.
posted by dai at 4:13 PM on September 1, 2001

Ireland - Holland: 1-0.

There is probably no god, because we are not going to World cup 2002.
posted by nonharmful at 4:19 PM on September 1, 2001

Wow, 5 goals. That's a LOT for soccer, no?

It's a lot, but with a lower cases "lot". :-)

There's a misconception in the US that most soccer games end 1-0. The average scores are probably closer to 2-1, and 4- and 5- goal games happen regularly. It's not too far from ice hockey.
posted by jpoulos at 4:29 PM on September 1, 2001

it certainly is a LOT against germany. then again, today's german side is absolute shit compared to the 60's.
posted by dai at 4:44 PM on September 1, 2001

Soccer games in the US finish with a lot more goals than elsewhere. Germany is probably the stingiest for goals - too many good defenders :) Not tonight though - HA! Ohmygosh. I may even see some smiles on English faces in London tmrw. Surely not?! :)
posted by Mossy at 5:05 PM on September 1, 2001

jpoulos...

There's the 31-0 victory Australia had against Solomon Islands in qualifying, so sometimes it's more like non-conference college football =).
posted by Kevs at 2:08 AM on September 2, 2001

jpoulos...

There's the 31-0 victory Australia had against Solomon Islands in qualifying, so sometimes it's more like non-conference college football =).
posted by Kevs at 2:08 AM on September 2, 2001

The Dutch out, Germany looking at a play-off and Brazil in some trouble - the marketing department at FIFA must be have conniptions.
posted by johnny novak at 2:28 AM on September 2, 2001

Ever since Norman Tebbit's notorious Cricket Test (which stated that members of ethnic minorities in Britain couldn't be properly British because they tended to support the teams of the countries they or their families originally came from) I've tended to lend what little support I could muster to whoever the opposing team was in international matches. Usually, of course, this meant I was rooting for the winning team (especially in cricket - could we get worse results by just picking eleven blokes at random off the street?), but also meant that I was cheering for Cameroon all those years ago.

Which was nice.

Still, 5-1 against Germany. What happened?
posted by Grangousier at 2:44 AM on September 2, 2001

What happened?

Germany weren't very good. Beckham wasn't injured. Liverpool seem to be keeping English football alive. And Eriksson isn't going to be slammed for being a foreigner until the next game...
posted by andrew cooke at 3:01 AM on September 2, 2001

I'm just glad I moved back to Wales before last night.
posted by fullerine at 3:01 AM on September 2, 2001

Well, I think it's worth a mention, though deeply upsetting, that Scotland yet again reached the dizzy heights of being just really mediocre and we drew 0-0 with Croatia. So now we HAVE to beat Belgium, who we have a history of gifting points to.

I'd ask for Craig Brown's head on a platter, but he seems such a damn nice guy, and frankly we don't have anyone better to coach the team.
posted by jackiemcghee at 3:10 AM on September 2, 2001

Liverpool seem to be keeping English football alive.

Liverpool seems to be keeping England alive.
posted by feelinglistless at 3:18 AM on September 2, 2001

Brian Moore died of a heart attack last night. i grew up listening to him commentate on football matches.

it seems that watching England play counts as a dangerous sport.
posted by quarsan at 4:45 AM on September 2, 2001

Quote from the BBC:

"After all the pre-match German criticism of Seaman and the claims heralding Kahn as the world's number one, the home side's keeper was left with egg on his face. "

haha... i like the phrase.
posted by arrowhead at 4:46 AM on September 2, 2001

I can't believe it! 18 hours after the match and I'm still hoarse and my ears are still ringing!
posted by salmacis at 7:27 AM on September 2, 2001

Indeed.. great performance by the England team. You'd have to say the German back 3 are about the worst German defence for a good many years, but still, you can't only beat what's in front of you and they won away in the Olympic Stadium, which I think is an achievement.

A huge shame that the late Brian Moore didn't get to see that game, he'd have loved every minute of it.
posted by williamtry at 8:48 AM on September 2, 2001

I was at a wedding yesterday, and the bride had made it quite clear that she'd be mortally offended if we sneaked off to watch the match. Anyway, by taking a somewhat creative route back from the gents', I caught Gerrard's goal just before half-time, which really turned things round. Later, back in the reception, a group of us were twiddling our thumbs, wondering how we could get back to the TV room, when the groom's father walks in and says "why aren't you watching? it's 4-1..."

He received a not-inconsiderable amount of stick from us all.
posted by holgate at 9:31 AM on September 2, 2001

what pisses me off about Scotland is the players not playing - Ferguson (spat with SFA after being sent down), JC (retired!!! from International football) and MacAllister (booed off by some neaps a couple of years ago).

All of them would walk into the team right now and into most Scotland teams of the last thirty years.

And BTW well done England (I mean it - Beckham, Gerard and Owen are truly world class).
posted by johnny novak at 9:43 AM on September 2, 2001

I'm just glad I moved back to Wales...

Just try not to think about the fact that Michael Owen could've chosen to play for Wales.
posted by ceiriog at 9:54 AM on September 2, 2001

I don't get it. I just don't get it. Why is it Germany that gets everyone excited? I mean, it can't JUST be the second world war can it? I mean that was nearly sixty years ago. I'm English. I don't understand it. Are German people intrinsically evil?
posted by barbelith at 11:33 AM on September 2, 2001

Can I just express my gratitude towards the Irish team for fecking us out the world cup? Now I don't have to endure World Cup mania for the next few years. Hurrah.
posted by prolific at 1:38 AM on September 3, 2001

I thought it was great that England beat Germany, but it was spoiled by the actions of the English fans (yet AGAIN), and press coverage along the lines of the front page of today's Daily Mirror. Words to the effect of "Germany have been gloating and being snide for 30-odd years, we've shown them now, nyah-nyah."
Oh please, grow up.
posted by emc at 5:41 AM on September 3, 2001

that's the beauty of it all, emc.

germany would've done the same to england had the results been reversed.
posted by arrowhead at 9:41 AM on September 4, 2001