Today sees the most important match of a generation. Our heroes are one game from glory. Victory will be sweet. History will be rewritten. Is football coming home?
It's been a build-up to remember and the team has put on a performance to savour. Inspired by a never-say die attitude and unshakable confidence, the players have shown fighting spirit and unwavering dedication to the cause. But with success comes responsibility and as the stakes rise to uncharted peaks this is suddenly a whole new ball game. With kick-off fast approaching the nation will come together as one, hold its breath and dare to dream. The eyes of the world are watching.
Only four weeks ago reaching this match was the outcome everybody wanted, but injury worries and past disappointments meant only a few brave souls predicted a path to success. And yet true grit and tactical dominance have brought us here, not to mention a few cheeky backheels, proving that collective talent and determination can combine to raise the roof and lift the trophy. That's the mentality of champions.
They've never really looked in trouble. It all started with that opening match, the game decided by a goal which took the breath away. The follow-up match was harder fought but artistry showed through and few will forget the eventual outcome. But it was perhaps the knockout stage when tensions really came to the fore with gripping contests against unfamiliar foes. It could all have been so different, indeed at one point everything hinged on a kick of a ball. But as the other teams fell by the wayside, unable to withstand the pressure, so the results stacked up and we now stand on the brink of an epoch-defining achievement.
It all comes down to the right manager, and it's hard to imagine anyone better than the current incumbent. Steely determination and tactical brilliance come as standard, but also a focused tenacity and a generosity of spirit. The professional approach has certainly paid off, indeed some say none of this would have been possible without the right guiding spirit on the touchline to drive the team forward. Now a household name, success today would be the highlight of a glittering career but also a just reward for services given, and long may that continue.
The team now have to play the game of their lives and become the best version of themselves. They've trained for this, focusing on choreographed set pieces drummed into their consciousness through discipline and repetition, and now is the time to prove all this persistent practice has paid off. It's also the culmination of a lifetime of dedication, be that kicking balls around a back garden or turning out in all weathers to play with their mates at the bottom of the football pyramid, never believing that one day they might be here.
These players are now role models for the game, acting as ambassadors for fair play and living examples of an exemplary mindset. Across the country there are young footballers whose lives will be changed forever by this run of success, the their eyes lifted, their aspirations raised, as football once again proves it can inspire the next generation. Hope is a valuable commodity and this team have it in spades.
As the build-up to today's game has intensified members of the squad have become household names, no longer able to step out into the street without being recognised. The price of fame brings considerable additional pressures, both short and long term, but the potential sponsorship opportunities are also enormous. Pick the right brand, or let it pick you, and the rewards could be life-changing. And yet schoolmates remember unassuming friends with posters of the greats on their bedroom walls, a position they somehow now find themselves in, because they were always destined for success and now here it is.
Every member of the team now has a place amongst the key players without whom none of this would been possible. Their technical skills are without question and their collective talents entirely essential to the whole, and yet each combines to form a tightknit unit in which each character plays their part. With their dynamic vigour, instinctive firepower and trademark dexterity honed to perfection, this is a team driven to perform and motivated to succeed.
The match is expected to bring windfalls for the hospitality industry as patriotic supporters assemble in front of screens big and small to celebrate the game with a drink. Supermarkets have long been braced for peak demand, sales of barbecues have hit the roof and official merchandise has been flying off the shelves like never before. Across the country this morning, in every home, workplace and beer garden, the entire nation will stop what it's doing and come together to cheer as one, rooting for success.
Fans gathering to celebrate the upcoming game are adamant that this is an opportunity not to be squandered. They predict victory with absolute certainty, be that by a historic margin or just the one goal, perhaps after a nailbiting penalty shootout, but always convinced that losing would be impossible. "It's ours to win," they say, "I'm sure we will, we can't throw this once in a lifetime chance away." This is a team that inspires infallibility in a sport which demands rock solid devotion, and should they dare to fail the collective meltdown will be visceral.
These young players can't have realised while they were growing up how their collective audacity and determination would coalesce into a formidable fighting force. From also-rans to sure-fire victors, it's been a long hard struggle on the gruelling path to glory. No matter the trials of the situation this is a team that pulls together and always finds a way to maintain a position of strength in every manoeuvre they make. Sporting immortality is suddenly tantalisingly close.
They start the match as favourites but don't write off their opponents, who after all have reached the same stage in the competition. Matched one-for-one there'll be some tough battles ahead - a tangle in midfield, a skirmish on the sidelines, a fearless fight for possession in front of goal. What's required is substance combined with style, a strong finisher who can rise to the occasion and an approach that's sharp but clinical. Never before has so much been expected by so many of so few.
Predicting the future with any certainty is futile, and writing 1000 words of opinionated waffle before the match begins is fundamentally pointless. But we stand on the cusp of immortality, weighed down by history, as our greatest team enters uncharted territory. This is the final frontier, literally the event horizon, a chance to reach for glory and grasp it with both hands. The record books await, and all you have to do is believe.
