Nicholas Laughlin's blog etc.

Not watching the match, Part 2

I didn't watch the famous match on 19 November, 1989, either--the one when we had merely to draw against the US to make it to the World Cup, but instead lost by a goal. The TV was on, I remember, but the whole thing was too nervewracking--the general excitement had got even to me--& I spent most of the hour & a half pacing up & down the lawn in the back garden. This time around, public behaviour has been far less frenzied. Partly because, I suppose, we learned that lesson sixteen years ago about not counting unhatched eggs; partly because of the worried & distracted state of the nation; & also this time it isn't as simple as winning (or drawing) a single match--after this evening there's the second game in Bahrain to decide things.