It's just a rivalry for Scottish people against a neighbouring country, for the vast majority of people it's nothing whatsoever to do with jealousy or hatred (although I am somewhat jealous of any country who's at the world cup, be it England or North Korea).

Scotland are awful, and we'll be lucky to qualify again for a major tournament for a long time unless there's an influx of young talent sometime soon. On the plus side, at least we realize we're not a good team and hold no delusions that we'll win the world cup ;)

I have little understanding of his eccentricities on this forum. However, if his ramblings here are anything like those on his blog, then yes. Probably the only thing you're really missing out on is his patented "quiet scream". Having read his blog and listened to his rants in person, I will say that he's slightly easier to understand in person. Brennan (or "The Brow") has yet to really understand that "sarcasm" doesn't translate into electronic form as well as he'd like.

In other news, what a great goal for Cameroon! Great progression, great control and pass, Eto'o kept his head and put away a clinical finish.

As a Scottish person I can say that, while I respect you might think this is true, you're wrong.

I dont think i am. I would never claim that all Scottish football fans are this way but you cant deny that alot of them are. Most of them that i personally have talked to have more to say about us than they do their own team.

Im sorry but this is the impression Scottish fans have left on me. Its not just about a rivalry between England and Scotland. Its all about anyone whatsoever beating England and forget what Scotland are up to.

If these people dont make up the majority then i would need the proof. Send some of the ones who i could have a bullshit free conversation with down to the North East will you?

Oh and i dont think any English person is actually expecting to win the world cup. The English arent exactly optimists. We might hope but we arent delusional. You know if we actually did get it together and everything fell into place, we would miss being able to complain about how rubbish we are.

I feel your pain, top league in the world , and you are ****e, don't believe the hype.............

Insulting the spanish now?

I haven't had a lot of time to watch any of the World Cup until today. Currently watching Cameroon vs Denmark.

OK, I think you are correct, at least to a small extent. I would say in Scotland, there definitely is an apathy toward the national team from some people, mostly Rangers and Celtic fans who are more concerned with Rangers and Celtic than the national team (for various reasons, some being pretty stupid like religion and genuine hatred between Rangers/Celtic fans).

But, I would still say the majority of us do care about the national team, despite the fact we know it's unlikely we'll progress through to the big tournaments. When we were involved in that tough Euro 2008 qualifying group with Italy, France and Ukraine, and nearly got through, almost everyone in Scotland was right behind the team. It wasn't so much the case in the world cup qualifiers, because we were back to the usual awful results, such as getting horsed 4-0 by Norway. Even though it was a fairly embarrassing qualifying campaign, most people were still behind the team... and to say most Scottish people don't care about our national team is very exaggerated in my opinion, and certainly is among most of the people I know...

I think that even if Scotland were capable of winning the world cup and everyone in the country followed the national team through-and-through (obviously this ain't gonna happen awrite!) - I still think most of us would enjoy seeing England fail. And to be honest, arrogant headlines like this one:

http://cdn.majorleaguesoccertalk.com...d-cup-2010.jpg

are one of the main reasons it's funny to see you guys fuck up. And sure, the media in most of the best football countries would probably say the same thing about that group (although for England, the headline appears more futile by the second ;) ), but as we all see the same newspapers in Scotland and England, it gives us more reason to want England to make an arse of it. I think you're really overstating it if you're saying it's hatred or whatever else, although for some people it probably is (but these people are far from being a majority like you claim)

Of course, I think the fact that Scotland are too ****e to make it to a world cup plays a part in making us all seem more concerned about England than about our own team... but we do care about our national team, regardless of our enjoyment of england failing and regardless of the fact that our national team is fucking horrible!

I am glad that us Americans don't get into **** fights over soccer matches . . .

How confrontational.

I don't see why not. Might be fun to do once the knockout tournament starts. Not sure I'd know how/where exactly to do one on this forum though - someone else might have to help me with that.

Barring the yawnfest that was Netherlands-Japan, another pretty exciting day's football today. Looks like this is heating up to be quite a good tournament. Then again, I thought the same at this point of Germany '06, which got very very dull very very fast once the group stage finished.