I have always been a strong supporter of England in the FIFA World Cup. Why is this the case?
Since Malaysia is a commonwealth country, UK has always been the European country that I am most familiar with. Since young, I always admired the British culture. In contrast, I was never truly interested in any other European country. The first time where I watched the FIFA World Cup was in 2010. I naturally supported England at that time. After seeing the England team, I felt that they showed good sportsmanship, and this reaffirmed my support towards England.
During the round of 16 in FIFA 2010, much to my disappointment, Germany defeated England 4-1. Worst of all, when Germany was leading 2-1 in the game, England actually scored a second goal which would have equalised, but the goal was somehow disallowed. This was definitely one of the greatest injustices in the history of FIFA World Cup. It gave me the strong feeling that FIFA was deliberately biased against England. As a result, I supported England even more.
The subsequent FIFA World Cup was in 2014. At that time, I was applying to study Medicine at NUMed. Since NUMed is a UK university, my support towards England in FIFA 2014 became even stronger. Unfortunately, England failed to win a single match in the group stage, and eventually finished last with just 1 point. Some people questioned my support towards England which they felt was a weak team, but in my opinion, the ability to win should not be the sole reason for supporting a team.
In 2018, the FIFA World Cup was held just after I returned from UK for my Medical Elective. There were many things I liked about UK when I was there. As such, I most definitely support England in FIFA 2018. England got through the group stage easily this time. Then, in the round of 16 and quarterfinal, I expected that Colombia and Sweden would be huge challenges for England, and I dared not even watch those matches live. But in the end, England was able to defeat them and I was really impressed.
For the semifinal, I thought that England would defeat Croatia without much difficulties. However, it turned out that Croatia defeated England 2-1, which made me feel very upset. Worse still, there were many Croatia fans who kept teasing England and its fans. As a result, I hated Croatia and I wished for them to lose in the final, which they eventually did. I initially wanted to tease the Croatia fans just like what they did to the England fans, but I decided not to do so after seeing the lovely Croatian president who appeared during the final.
Honestly speaking, it is still a great achievement for England to get the 4th place in FIFA 2018. In the future, I will continue to support England in the FIFA World Cup, and nothing will change this. The only exception is if Malaysia qualifies for the FIFA World Cup and gets matched with England, where I will definitely support Malaysia instead of England.
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