Scenes from Manchester and Liverpool on July 14 when England faced Spain for the European Championship.
During my recent trip to the United Kingdom (see Event 2 of Around the World in 80 Sporting Events) my wife, Carol, and I happened to be in England on the day of the Euro Championship which featured England vs. Spain.
It was magical to bear witness to a country seemingly unified around a common goal: Winning its first-ever Euro Championship (and first major trophy since the 1966 FIFA World Cup).
As we spent time that Sunday afternoon in football (soccer)-crazed Manchester, I couldn’t help but notice the default clothing choice seemed to be the Team England kit (e.g. jersey) and that the closer it got to the 8 o’clock start time, the fewer and fewer folks we found on the streets. By the time we arrived back to our flat in Liverpool you’d have thought Paul and Ringo had both died … there was NO ONE out and about.
It also made me long for that esprit de corps that I only ever remember experiencing as an entire nation once.
The date was February 22, 1980, and a plucky team of – mainly – American college hockey players took it to the mighty Soviet Union squad for the entirety of 60 minutes in the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. We all know the outcome and the aftermath, but it was that feeling we collectively shared during the magical run over two weeks in February 1980 that I’d love to see the United States experience again.
Perhaps it’s naive of me to believe that something similar is again possible here. In a nation as geographically large as ours, as diverse as ours, and as, seemingly, culturally and politically bifurcated as ours, maybe experiencing what the people of England enjoyed for a few days last month is too much to ask.
Still, I’ll keep waiting on another miracle.
