10 years ago today

[From Despair To Where?]

Watched it down my local - absoultely drenched in beer when the 5th went in.

Amazing to think about the relative successes of the two teams since then though - Germany have been to a WC final, two WC semis and an EC final whereas England haven't got past the quarter final stage (and got spanked 4-1 at SA 2010). One wonders if they'd have had that success if the result had been reversed (not that I'm suggesting England would have done the same if we'd lost 5-1 that day).

I'm guessing you read the BBC article then.

I can honestly say I hadn't - I have now though

I'm not great with modern history, but I suppose you could say that there are parallels with the war and how the German infrastructure (roads, rail etc) has come on far more since 1945 then ours has. Perhaps losing is the new winning.....

Winning is great for papering over cracks, losing in such a manner forces you to re-assess and rebuild from the bottom up, often with a blank canvas.

[Wycombe Royal]

A day I remember well as I sliced my finger open with a chisel so I missed the first half as I was down the casualty department having it stitched back up.

[muddyfeet]

god that was 10 years ago, remember watching it in the pub near the station - cant remember what is was called at the time - The Firkin?

[handbags_harris]

Watched it in The Red Lion in Theale, my local at the time. Remember the fanny licker of a bar manager insisting people calm down after we equalised and then took the lead. She'd given up trying by the end.

I ended the night in A&E, nothing to do with me, the good samaritan in me saw a then colleague walk past the Rat & Cat "Chinese" takeaway absolutely oxf*rd beyond belief so decided to walk him home because I though there was no way he could get home himself - he lived in Fords Farm. He ended up in the ditch outside what is now Dunelm Mill and f*cked his cruciate. My abiding memory is that I left my takeaway in the taxi when we got to the hospital - oxf*rd knows how I managed to blag the chap into the taxi. I'm only glad that we got it in time otherwise a £50 standard throwing up fare would have applied - instead he threw up all over the hospital floor. I remember it well, reddy purple blackcurrant liquid with little meaty bits. Lovely

[SpaceCruiser]

I will always remember this one. Was at a mates somewhere in Caversham and there was an incredibly annoying power cut somewhere in the middle of the first half. So we camped out to the Prince of Wales and watched the drama unfold. I thought, great stuff at half time. But I needed some cash, so I left the pub to go to the cashpoint somewhere on the caversham high street (you know what I mean!) and on the way back, I was stunned to see a goal by Michael Owen when I walked past a chinese. I hurried on back to the pub and the atmosphere was absolutely amazing and the whole thing unfolded. I was pinching myself to make sure I was not dreaming and the pub was absolutely rocking.

What a great time.

The best ever.

[Jerry St Clair]

I've watched the game back. And England really didn't play very well. Couldn't pass, lacked creativity and were generally pretty lucky that nearly everything they hit flew in.

Honestly, watch the game back and, apart from the goals, the game is eerily like any one of the myriad of quarter final failures.

[Kitsondinho]

But that German team were SO poor, us not playing too well didn't matter!! How they reached the WC Final in 2002 was the madness of their side of the draw....Paraguay, US, S.Korea.......Mind you, our side of the draw wasn't much more taxing mind....Brazil aside obs......Their 1-0 win over Paraguay in 2nd round was THE most boring international game I have ever seen! As for 1-5 I watched it at home with my Dad. I was also getting text updates from our neighbours. They were in Munich that evening and phoned us at FT, held the phone up so we could hear the noise the England fans were making.....amazing stuff!