That sounds so familiar!

We enjoyed another good World Cup game last night - England v Sweden. Apparently England hasn't been able to beat Sweden for 30 years. The England team also has a Swedish coach (named Sven, no less), so it was something of a rivalry. To top it all off, the Swedish captain looks as much like a Hollywood star as David Beckham. (Pretty much all of Sweden does.)

The game was in Cologne, and so they had lots of shots of the wonderful cathedral that we saw not so long ago. The newscaster was standing right where I shook hands with a German cardinal!

For awhile it looked like we were actually going to win it (oh dear, I'm saying "we" now), but it ended up a draw at 2-2. One of the highlights was finally getting to see the famous Wayne Rooney (the one with the ears) do his thing. And he really was very good and fun to watch.

Sadly, another one of the other big stars of the team, Michael Owen, hurt his knee very badly in the first minute of the game, and he is going to be out for five months - i.e. the rest of the World Cup. The poor guy. It was awful to watch. He wasn't hit or anything, his knee just suddenly crumpled under him after he landed a little funny.

Each World Cup game starts with the singing of the national anthem of each team, and most of the players belt it out with the crowd. Did you know that the tune of the British national anthem, "God Save the Queen," is the same as "My Country, 'Tis of Thee"? It's always interesting to hear such a familiar tune with the "wrong" lyrics!
They only sing the first verse before games, and apparently on most other occasions as well. It goes like this:

God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and Glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!

It's interesting that everyone will have to remember to change the words when the Queen dies - at least, I don't think Charles would appreciate being called the country's "gracious Queen"!

The history of "God Save the Queen" (or "King", as it originally was) is somewhat obscure, but it seems to have been written around 1745, for the occasion of George II's battle with the Jacobites, who were mostly Scottish. Thus the sixth verse - which is almost never sung, and especially not in Scotland! - goes like this:

Lord grant that Marshal Wade [the king's general]
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the Queen!

In Scotland, as well as in Wales and Northern Ireland, "God Save the Queen" is sung as the national anthem at royal events, but for other events like sports matches they much prefer their own. One of Scotland's anthems is my favorite, "Scotland the Brave", which was played on the bagpipes at our wedding.

Another unofficial anthem of Scotland is "Scots Wha Hae," which was written by Robbie Burns of "Ode to a Haggis" fame, in 1793. (wha hae is Scots for "who have.") It sounds very much like the "rebellious Scots" we all know and love:

Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to Victorie!

Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow! -
Let us do or die!

The next USA game is tomorrow, against Ghana. My country, 'tis of thee...