English support for the underdogs… of England

Given that we have qualified for a major tournament, I’m a little amazed (and gratified) that there are no pumped-up - to the extent of being overblown - expectations surrounding the English football team.  Very few cars have England or Union flags pegged to their windows and, for those that do, the cloth has a distinctly ragged look as if they were 2006 vintage.

Just because the hype is absent, doesn’t mean the commentary should be neglected.  Gary Lineker continues to improve as the link man but with matches in progress, Mick McCarthy, for example, is still prone to interspersing wisdom with absolute cobblers.  Over on ITV, Clive Tyldesley spouted rank footballing illiteracy when he said that Portugal have never been eliminated in the knock-out stages of the European Championships.  A non-sequitur at the best of the times given that Portugal was engaged in a group stage match with Denmark, the fact that it is untrue (losing in the semi-finals in 2000 and in the final in 2004) and that Tyldesley meant to say that Portugal have never been eliminated in the group stages, is, well, that’s just poor.  That this stupidity survived to the highlights package sums up the slipshod nature of ITV football coverage.