Beaten by Colonists

While the UK presents a united front in most international arenas, in a few sporting events each of the four Home Countries (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland) are considered separate nations. In the soccer world, England is generally thought to be heads and shoulders above its counterparts - one sage on USENET once responded to the question of what an "UK" national team would look like by saying it would be the England national team, plus Wales and ManU winger Ryan Giggs. So when England hooked up with Northern Ireland yesterday in a World Cup Qualifiers in Belfast, most folks expected an English walkover of their colonial cousins.

Didn't happen that way! Northern Ireland striker David Healy (who plays for my team Leeds in England, ironically) scored in the 74th minute to send England to a defeat that one British commentator has called "embarrassing" and "wretched." It almost certainly will keep England from winning their qualification group, thus jeopardizing their World Cup future. Or at least making it much more difficult than it should be. It would be the equivalent, I suppose, of the US being beaten by Puerto Rico (which, for some reason, has its own national team).

They say that one of the great things about soccer is that on any given day any team can beat any other team. I bet the English don't think that's quite so special today.