McEnroe Delivers Message To England Team
Locker Room
July 2, 2018
Tennis legend John McEnroe has come up with a timely message for the England soccer team ahead of their World Cup showdown with Colombia.
Tennis fever is sweeping London but so is football fever because the World Cup only comes around once every four years.
England’s knockout match against the Colombians in Russia was on the minds of many early this week, even some of the tennis greats, past and present.
Realistic
Asked to come up with something inspirational on BBC TV’s Wimbledon highlights programme, the hilarious McEnroe responded like this:
‘Don’t lose again.’
The former Wimbledon champion, now a commentator and pundit, brought the house down with that one-liner.
He knew England had lost their last group match against Belgium. But he also knew that the defeat opened up a realistic path all the way to the final.
Beatable
‘This is the time, they have a great draw,’ Supermac explained.
And it is true. If they beat Colombia, England are due to face either Roger Federer’s Switzerland or Bjorn Borg’s Sweden in the World Cup quarter-finals.
Croatia, home of last year’s Wimbledon finalist Marin Cilic, could be waiting for England in the semi-final.
All those teams are beatable for a team like England – but only on a good day.
Wisdom
Potentially, therefore, England could go all the way to a dream final against perhaps Brazil or France.
Could England win the World Cup? Not impossible, but first there is Colombia to deal with.
So McEnroe concluded with the following words of wisdom for the England players:
Opportunities
‘There are certain times of your life when you have opportunities and later you look back and you may never have that chance again. So take advantage of it.’
And if Stan Wawrinka gains momentum at this year’s Wimbledon, the same may apply to him.
After all, Wimbledon is the one Slam that Stan has never won, and time is running out.
Brightly
He certainly started brightly with a surprising victory over Grigor Dimitrov, winning 1-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
A trademark backhand winner down the line clinched the key third set and Wawrinka never looked back.
It is a tall order for the Swiss to win Wimbledon so soon after coming back from injury.
Winning
But if McEnroe and his British hosts are talking about England winning the soccer World Cup for the first time in 52 years, then surely anything is possible in sport!