World Cup – Just Four More Wins! by David Rawnsley
Cornwall ON – Yes, if like me, your team has made it into the last 16, then all that stands between them and hoisting the World Cup is another four wins. If your team, like mine, is beginning to show signs of improvement, then perhaps there is a chance that they will be able to climb the mountain that they can see before them.
Here I am again. Every four years, as regular as clockwork, I start to wonder whether, perhaps, maybe, it is our moment to reach the pinnacle of soccerdom. I start to look at who is left in? I begin to evaluate who could we beat? I suddenly begin to reassume an identity that I have shed long ago. I suddenly become English all over again.
The good news is we know how to beat Germany. At the moment we have their number. Not that it has always been like that. No, after 1966, when we beat them in the World Cup final, they consistently extracted their revenge. However, in recent years (perhaps they have forgotten 66) it seems that we have reasserted ourselves. We understand their style of play and it matches ours. It will be a tight game, not open flowing football, but I can see no reason why we should not reach the quarter-finals, when the prize will be one win nearer.
So the dream begins. Americans are also waking up to this new possibility, perhaps they, the good old stars and stripes, could manage four more wins? Ghana, their next opponent, has not impressed. They are there for the taking – moving the US closer to a prize that 10 years ago would have seemed impossible.
So here’s to dreams. May they sparkle.
Well at least for a couple of days.
David Rawnsley is President of the Char Lan Minor Soccer Association as well as Executive Director of FOSS, Friends of SD&SG Soccer and a district Referee, as well as co-founder of Char-Lan Women’s Soccer.
Soccer is his Passion, and we’re hoping to get several reports from him during the 2010 Fifa World Cup!
