England's 3-2 win over Mexico in the World Cup has provided a rare moment of joy for columnist Zoe Williams, who describes waking up to the good news as "strange and unfathomable." The victory, celebrated by Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka, stands in stark contrast to years of unremitting disasters that have shaped Williams's outlook.
A History of Disappointment
Williams recalls going to bed on Sunday with low expectations, as commentators discussed Donald Trump, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, and Folarin Balogun's rescinded red card. The US, hosting most of the tournament, seemed poised for favoritism. But England's win defied the pessimism that has defined the past decade.
The Brexit result in June 2016 marked the start of "the horrible surprise awakening," followed by Trump's election later that year. Williams notes that decisions made by humans, whether individually or collectively, have consistently been wrong since then. She reflects on how prior disasters—celebrity deaths, natural catastrophes, and social unrest—now seem trivial compared to recent events.
Nostalgia for Simpler Times
In 2011, the killing of Osama bin Laden, the hacking scandal, earthquakes in New Zealand (killing 185) and Japan (nearly 20,000 deaths), famine in Somalia, and the Breivik massacre created an "end-of-days feeling." Yet Williams finds it extraordinary that there was time to debate the legality of Bin Laden's killing or the shadiness of tabloid news. UK riots that year led to overnight magistrates' courts and custodial sentences for stealing bottled water, prompting questions about society's breakdown. Now, social breakdown seems far graver, involving arson attacks on buildings due to their occupants.
Williams also looks back to the turn of the century, when the Millennium Dome was considered the height of government mismanagement. She recalls confusion about the criticism, noting that marking a thousand years with a dome seemed reasonable. The outrage over Tony Blair's slow response to the false imprisonment of Coronation Street's Deirdre Barlow in 1998 now appears absurdly trivial.
Sport as a Beacon of Hope
Despite the pattern of disaster, sport has become more than a diversion—it is a "keeper of the flame," reminding us that outcomes are not always predictable, even with pessimism as a guide. Williams emphasizes that this holds true only when no one is cheating. The England victory offers a fleeting but precious moment of optimism.
