Fab-ulous?

I had the great pleasure of watching England beat Switzerland 2-1, the first match of Fabio Capello’s reign as manager, in Rock’s Cafe, a little bar here in Wengen. In fact, it’s where I am right now as I post this on the web.

Rock’s shows a lot of Premiership games, and so as you can imagine is very popular with British football fans. And, it turns out, with the Swiss, who came in cheerily shouting “Up Schweiz!” one by one during the early stages of the match. (Pronunciation guide: Oop Schweetz is as close as I’m going to get. Many of the Brits had no idea what they were saying, and cheered it with them!)

2-1 is a win. Better than that – it wasn’t like watching Steve McLaren’s England. Everyone seemed to be playing in position. They knew what they were there to do. They passed the ball!!! When someone passed the ball to Peter Crouch’s feet, I felt like standing and cheering. It was the 91st minute before the long ball appeared. Sure, Wes Brown looked a bit dozy; he does at Man Utd. Ashley Cole looks a shadow of himself. Wayne Rooney isn’t a lone striker. These are quibbles.

It was a different ballgame entirely to this.

And I spent it very happily in the company of a couple of Scots, Graham and Lynn, who had come to church on Sunday, and who then turned up again in the piano bar in the Falken last night. Most agreeable.

Fabulous Fabio? Not quite, not yet. But a great start in a friendly the manager wanted to win, which showed the right attitude after too many meaningless such games in the last few years. We look forwards with anticipation.