Kill an Argie and win a Metro and other thoughts on Germany's win

Quite apart from the fact that Germany were head and shoulders above anyone else in this World Cup, what has been particularly rewarding is that the acceptance and recognition by so many English people has not been grudging.

As recently as 1996, the anti German feeling ran high in this country, not exactly assisted by tabloid headlines such as 'Achtung! Surrender!  For you Fritz, ze Euro 96 Championship is over.'  (And yes, the editor of that tabloid, the Mirror, at that time was Piers Morgan, the man who at this World Cup predicted that Brazil would stroll it.)

I do not believe that the red top media is solely responsible for bigotry approaching racism, but they don't help.

Several generations have grown up since World War 2 and it does seem, at last, that most people have finally understood that Hitler's Germany is as different from Angela Merkel's as it could possibly be.

So much of the stereotypical attitude to Germans stems from the myth of their arrogance and superiority, even to the extent of German holidaymakers taking all the sun beds.  (This is actually true, by the way, but my experience is that the Brits are every bit as bad!)  But my experience is that the Germans, as a people, are no more arrogant than anyone else.  Some of my best friends are Germans and many speak far better English than we do!

Almost unheard of, many of us were rooting for Germany because they play such great football and they are so dignified.  Having said that, my main emotion watching this great German side is sheer jealousy!

I suspect that some people may have 'supported' Germany because Argentina invaded the Falklands back in 1982, generating headlines such as 'Kill an Argie and win a Metro!' (which was actually a Private Eye spoof but it wasn't that far out).  Because the nation was in a terrible economic mess and ruled by a military dictator, the disgraceful invasion of the islands does not mean that all Argentines are bad people.  Yes, many of them supported the invasion and many more believe that the Falklands belong to them, but is that a good reason for hating them?  (History suggests the Argentine invasion was down to the sheer incompetence of Margaret Thatcher's government, but that's another story!)

I cannot hate the average German for World War Two any more than I can hate Argentina for the invasion of the Falklands.

In any event, football is a far better way of sorting out differences than going to war.

The trouble is that England are so bad these days that we don't get far enough in tournaments to even play these top international teams.