Although I am merely lukewarm, at best, toward the England squad compared to my a pretty move compatriots*, it was terrible to see the faces of the English lads at the conclusion of the match, particularly those like Terry and Ferdinand who crumpled into tears. However, I'm sure Gerrard at least and probably several others will feel much better when someone takes them aside and explains that it will be winter, not summer, when they play the 2010 cup in South Africa. As I tuned in and out of the blather of the Balboa-O'Brien show (and all the football must be going to my brain, because I've grudgingly found a few things to appreciate about these announcers, although perhaps it's just some troubling variant of Stockholm Syndrome) I heard them talking about how Gerrard apparently mentioned that this could be England's last chance for a long time to win the Cup, since the heat at an African World Cup would clearly be even more challenging for the squad than it was this summer in Germany. And then Balboa and O'Brien agreed that yep, hoo-boy, that was gonna be a scorcher all right.
As the Professor said to the children in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, "I wonder what they do teach them in these schools."
Meanwhile, in Cape Town, the southernmost host city in the 2010 tournament, this week's forecast appears to call for mild and match-friendly ranges in the 50s and 60s, while the more northerly Pretoria ranges from the 30s to the 70s-all a far cry from Germany's humid 90s.
*I compare my feelings about this year's England team to cooking something that has lots of enticing ingredients but ends up tasting terrible. I've not yet figured out how you can take players I like as much as I do Gerrard, Joe Cole, Terry, Rooney, etc. and make from them a team so utterly lacking in charisma for me, but it is reminsicent of the time I followed a recipe which, to this day, Derek and I refer to as "Disappointment Soup."
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