The Daily Bee: Don’t Take Me Home!

Good Morning Fear The Wall

England are in the European Championships final, for the first time ever! They will face Italy on Sunday, at Wembley Stadium. Win or lose, I really cannot wait.

Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

It’s rare that the two best teams in the tournament make it to the final, but in this case I think that has happened. Both England and Italy have been formidable, and both have played some excellent football. England have been defensively brilliant, while turning on the offensive charms on occasion throughout the tournament, while Italy have played some mesmerizing football, maintaining their defensive stability at the same time. I think either will be a deserving winner.

I have no doubt what the comments of this article will look like. They’ve looked that way under every article throughout this tournament. But I’m immensely proud of watching this England team. It represents the best version of this country, at a time when we have made a habit of showing the worst of ourselves far, far too often. This England team looks like an England that I know and love: diverse, progressive, and inclusive. It is a team full of leaders trying to do good things on and off the pitch. I’ve never been more unashamedly proud to follow a team, win or lose.

As to Denmark, that’s a tough loss to take, but I have a ton of admiration for what they have done at the Euros. They left absolutely everything on the pitch, and deserve all the credit for how far they got in the tournament. They were very unfortunate to concede off a soft penalty (though I thought there were several soft calls in the game), and they put in a tremendous effort to try and stop England. While they were not a favorite heading into the Euros, they showed that they deserved to get this far. Great effort.

The Daily Buzz

What’s the point, we all know what you’re going to do anyway. Fill your boots, I guess.