So that was the World Cup.

A summer of weather that we’re unlikely to see again made beers and barbeques the order of the day. An England performance that, despite what the negative nancies would say, was far better than the vast majority of people expected, provided a level of overall positivity that hasn’t been seen since the summer of ’96 (for those of you old enough to remember it). All the violence, racism and homophobia that we were told was going to be rampant at this event was nowhere to be seen, and even the final itself provided an unexpected surprise as the previously deadly dull French team found their shooting boots to see off a Croatian team who were far better than any of the more unrealistic England fans would give them credit for. If their goalkeeper was capable of moving they might have even won it.

It’s strange how people’s feelings can change in a period of time. This England team that went into the tournament with no expectations got much further than anyone could have hoped, playing a style of football that was pleasing on the eye, despite us having no stand out world stars. Yet now we keep hearing that we only beat Tunisia, Panama and Sweden, and ended up with a record of three wins and three defeats. I’ll be honest before the game started I wasn’t even that confident we’d beat Panama and to be fair the only game we lost that really counted was the semi-final.

Then there’s those who say we’ll never have a better chance than this because the big nations will come back stronger, but is there any guarantee of that? Germany and Spain have just seen a genuine golden generation of players reach the end of the line, with both bowing out on a bit of a damp squib, but who’s to say the next batch of players coming through will be anywhere near as good as this one? Spain had no real previous history before they won three major tournaments in a row, the last one being in 2012. Before that their best effort had been a runners up place in the 1984 European Championships, and prior to 2008 they were always a fancied team that never really did anything. For all we know by the time the next World Cup comes around it might be Iran or Saudi Arabia that have stumbled on their golden generation…..

Sweden finished top of Germany’s group, then beat the team ranked 6th in the world in Switzerland, before they faced England. Hindsight being the wonderful thing it is, and with England winning the game relatively comfortably (if you take Pickford’s three very good saves out of the equation), all of a sudden beating Sweden was no better than beating the Dog and Duck. As in a pub team called the Dog and Duck, not literally beating a dog and a duck.

It might well be that scoring early in the semi-final was, again with hindsight, a bad thing, as an England team who had played with freedom and a lack of fear went into the second half of a game knowing they were 45 minutes away from the final. Throw ins and free kicks took an age to be taken, and we sank further and further back as the reality kicked in that we were getting closer, and the mentality became about just holding on to what we had. Once the equiliser came and the team had to try and start playing again, they had nothing left in the tank and the end result became inevitable. What might have been……

That said, can anyone really say that Southgate could have done any more than what he did? Would you have had McGuire and Walker as two of your back three before we started? Trippier at right wing back? Sterling frustrates with his lack of an end product, but the work he did unnerved defenders and created space for others to play, and whether you like it or not we never looked like the same team when he wasn’t on the pitch.

So where does all this fit in with Ballers?

Well, while we’ve personally massively enjoyed the World Cup, the weather and the opportunities to socialise, from a business point of view the last few weeks have been a nightmare! Even things like 11-a-side teams pre-season training sessions have been moved to different nights which has meant some teams haven’t been able to fulfill their fixtures, and England managed to play a game on ALL of our league nights, massively affecting all leagues. Which is lovely.

The one positive we are now hoping to take from this, now that it’s all over, is that we will have the ‘Wimbledon’ effect (where everyone picks up a tennis racket for two weeks a year), and everyone will want to get themselves back out on the pitch. As with a new year it probably won’t happen straightaway, as everyone probably needs a bit of time to ease back into ‘normal’ life where the reality is that there isn’t football to watch with a beer every night.

It’s funny how things work out. I’d made my peace and was even quite happy at the idea of losing a full night’s business on our busiest night (and probably the night after with the hangovers) when England looked like they might make the final. The positive I took from it when we lost was that we might get a few games one, and then as we got to the day I still found myself disappointed when teams cancelled their games! It was only France v Croatia for goodness sake……

Anyway, that was the summer of ’18. We know it’s not quite over yet, but the thing that most people will remember it for is.

So drag yourself off your bar stool or garden furniture, get in touch with the lads, and get yourselves down to Ballers for a game. You should probably do it quickly too, as despite the issues with getting games on in recent weeks, if the current teams get themselves playing again we only actually have 4 spaces to fill!