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The scenes on the streets after Germany’s win on Friday had to been seen to be believed! Germany Ecstacy!
On Saturday I was joyfully told how people would be supporting Portugal. When Ricardo saved the last goal it just wasn’t possible to mask the utter schadenfreude at Englands misfortune.
Once again England are the plucky losers. Bad luck chaps! Better luck next time eh?! Its not whether you win or lose but how you play the game that counts! Yeh rrrrright!
Of the printable responses to the question about how fans feel, gutted is the most prevalent answer.
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Fans are also focussing on the bright side.
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The English have brimmed with praise for their German hosts throughout this tournament. The welcome, organisation and the way the Germans encouraged fans to join the party at outdoor viewing venues has won them over.
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“We want them to win now, says Derek Bell, from Bradford. “They’ve really looked after us, the hospitality has been excellent.”
news.bbc.co.uk How to cope with England’s demise
Its a shame the other nations arent such good sports. Losing wouldnt be half as bad if it werent for the little taunts and the obvious glee of all the other supporters that England are out (especially the prefect hosts!) . Everybody loves a winner but when you lose you lose alone. After discussing it with a few other expats I cant help but feeling that “the rest of the World” would have begrudged England a win!
Whilst watching both games on Saturday in comparison to Fridays ecstatic jubilations I couldnt help noticing how still and quiet the streets were. World Cup? What World Cup? You could have been forgiven for thinking that it was all a dream. Spent and exhausted fom the previous nights jubilations the host nation seemed to be enjoying a quiet night in while the party carried on without them. The other teams? A nice side show , a minor insignificance perhaps, in Germanys World Cup Title campaign!
Since Germany have started winning, for the hosts there has only really been one team – Germany über alles! No one here really believed that the Germans could get this far. Before the tournament Klinnsamn was severly criticised and berated in true german style for his leadership choices. But now…. it seems that the whole country is behind him and his team. The German pysche has (temporarily?) tuned 180 degrees. Gone is the moaning neagtive pessimism and in its place is the hopfeful positivity of a nation that really believes in itself (and its football team)
Nearly three enchanting weeks into the World Cup, such expressions of hatred against our own nation seem like a bizarre memory from a distant past.
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The Bild newspaper, Germany’s saucy national tabloid, has rechristened the tri-color flag “Schwarz, rot, geil,” or “black, red and horny.”
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The fact that fans from other parts of the world have been heaping praise on the Germans as friendly and helpful World Cup hosts has done much to strengthen a national self-esteem and confidence that has long been somewhat weak.
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It represents a seismic shift in attitudes towards the national banner and has prompted a fresh bout of soul searching about German national identity.
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spiegel.de How Germans Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Flag
So with the huge pyschological home advantage it has to be Germany and France in the final!
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