The Soft Bigotry of High Expectations

It always shocks English soccer supporters when they find out that they are perceived as "arrogant".

"How can we be arrogant," they ask "when we think our team is complete shit?"

And indeed, they're telling the truth: they hate their own national team with vim, vigor and a shot of vinegar. Their managers are inept. Their heroes are overrated. Indeed, it wouldn't appear that they would have much to be arrogant about.

But their disappointment in their team is a product of one thing: sky-high expectations that betray their true feelings about their team. They expect to win every game-- even games against superior opponents. And when it doesn't happen, it's always someone's fault. David Beckham. David Seaman. That slut Sven (or Rooney-- take your pick). They expect to win games away, when no other team has won in the past six. That was the case when England travelled to the outskirts of Tel Aviv to take on Israel. While England are undoubtedly far superior, player by player, to the Israelis, Israel is hardly a minnow. For years, they've played reasonably compact football-- and have earned some very good results. A great team like England should play for a win in Israel, but no one should have been shocked when Israel, as they often do, pulled out a result.

I repeat: no one should have been shocked. But as soon as the match ended, I knew the hate and recriminations would begin. Yes, it was a bad performance by England-- they were profligate with their chances. But ultimately only arrogance- an unwarranted assumption of superiority given the circumstances- can explain why expectations were so high in the first place.

I expect futbol fans to love their teams. I expect them to want their teams to win. And if they display hubris and talk shit, well, it comes with the territory. But what do we do with the English who hate their own team and, frequently it seems, want them to fail? Yes, they think England is awful, which would be comical if they didn't believe the rest of us are even worse. To me, this dishonest arrogance is a greater insult that anything the rest of us can come up with.