USA vs England

     I and two of my fellow collegues from the U.S.decided to go to one of the local pubs to watch the World Cup soccer game.  I wore my U.S.A. T-shirt; however, I did wear a jacket over it so I was not too obvious that I was cheering for  my home-town boys.  As we entered the pub, there were red and white flags (St. George's flag) everywhere and shirts with the logo of England (three lions within a sheild) on every person.  My collegues and I made our way to the second flood and parked ourselves right in front of the big screen projector TV.  Before the game started, we silently sang the Star-Spangled Banner. 

     As we watched the game playout, the locals became louder and drunker.  That was our clue to become "actresses" and pretend to cheer for England all the while we were cheering for the USA.  When England scored first, the pub erupted in shouts of joy and my collegues and I yelled in disgust.  However, no one in the place knew we were upset because they were cheering so much.  The second half we the complete opposite - much to our liking.  When the goalie for England missed the ball and the USA scored, the pub again erupted in noise; only this time the the screames were of disgust and anger.  That gave us the chance to whoop and hollar for the USA team.  Again, there was so much noise in the pub, no one realized that we were actually cheering for the USA.

     Even though the game ended in a tie, we considered is a victory because we had been getting so much "trash talk" about how the USA doesn't stand a chance against England since England's "sport" is football (soccer).  Well, they failed to recognize that many of the players on the USA team play regularly in England or in the European leagues.  Huh. . . English boasting.  Dummies.  After the game was over, we were all smiles as the English faithful were walking out in disbelief.  Over the following days, he goalie for England was chastised in the newspapers on the TV and on the radio.  I felt very sad for him.  The English were blaming one person for their team's tie.  However, being a diehard Steeler fan, I can definately understand their reaction to the goal.