England National Football: A Question of National Passion

In browsing skysports.com just a little bit ago, I saw that Pompey's own Jermain Defoe—just cut from the final 23 for the England match against France in a week's time—had weighed in on the issue of "passion" for the England shirt. "I saw the devastation in those changing rooms after we lost to Croatia. If only people knew what is was like...Perhaps some of the supports should go in the changing rooms afterwards. Some of the lads were in tears after that game, so don't talk to me about not caring," Jermain had to say. This caused me to look with a much higher level of scrutiny at England's performances over the course of an awful Euro 2008 campaign which, as we all know, ultimately leads to heartbreak at Wembley in November. But I kept returning to Jermain's comments on the issue, before I ultimately recognized what the feeling was that I had been looking to identify—disappointment, tinged with more than simply a little bit of anger. I—as many ... (link)