For the past eight years, The England International Football (soccer) Team has heavily flirted with success without actually achieving any. The men, that is, the women’s team have a habit of making winning look quite straightforward. This year, as the World Cup rolls into North America, not too much is different regarding us England fans and what we expect. The inevitable conversations on how England can progress to the final will have been floating around pubs and work places up and down the country for weeks: “We can go all the way if we get a kind draw and if Harry Kane is firing and fully fit.”
What is different is that two of the three hosting countries (Canada and the USA) have a much more trivial and historically indifferent relationship with the sport itself. Recent Google Trends history has outed the soccer watching public as generally having no idea what to sing or chant when the game is going on. “How do football chants start” and “how do soccer fans know what to chant” are the top soccer chant “how…” searches of all time in the USA. So, much to learn….
