'Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more'

When William Shakespeare wrote Henry V, and the above line, he surely had England's World Cup failures in mind. No other line in literature can sum up better the weariness, yet eternal optimism of England fans, who will forget the previous defeats by Germany over the last 40 years, and will even forget the poor performances over the last two weeks when 3 o'clock comes round tomorrow. That is the charm of football.

You will probably have gleaned from my blogs that I consider myself a Birmingham City fan first, and an England fan second. It's mainly due to my 'devil-may-care' attitude that has been brought about by so many meaningless England games, or games that you'd always expect to win. When supporting the Blues, this sureness never comes about. However, when you get to the knockout stages of a World Cup, the emotions of supporting England come close, or even surpass the feelings of supporting the Blues. This is what I live for in football- the ultimate high, or the ultimate low. In a way, it's a sort of adrenaline gambling. No half measures. That's why I would never consider putting a bet on Germany tomorrow, to soften the blow. There should be no fall back when supporting England- you get four years to get over their failure, you might as well experience the full, no-holds-barred blow of it.

'The game's afoot'

I haven't been around long enough to experience a defeat by Germany, when it's really mattered. Obviously I remember the last game at Wembley when Germany spoiled the party, but other than that, I don't think I've witnessed a competitive defeat by the Germans. The only England v Germany games I can remember are the 1-0 victory in Euro 2000, and the 5-1 victory in Munich. Therefore, on that logic, I should be feeling so much more confident than I am. But, as Henry V said, 'my blood is fet from fathers of war-proof'. My father remembers the defeats in Italia 90, or Euro 96, and so a fear of the Germans is bred. I was thinking the other day, that even if Ghana had won every game 5-0, we'd still rather play them than the Germans, which is frankly ridiculous. Perhaps if England win tomorrow, the ghosts of Turin and Wembley can be put to rest. Stuart Pearce must certainly be having flashbacks to 20 years ago, when he missed a penalty in the Turin shootout- now, in the dugout, he must use all his 'psycho-ness' to inspire the 11 Lions to victory.

'On, on, you noblest English!'

Writing this blog, I've even convinced myself we're going to win. I'm so excited for tomorrow's game, nothing can bring me down. And for anybody who feels Shakespeare may be turning in his grave at my use of one of his most famous speeches, my theory is this: he was a Warwickshire lad, was William, and so, in my mind, almost certainly would have been a Blues fan, had he not pre-dated the club by over 250 years. Therefore, he'd have been all too happy to have lent the above speech to me, right?