This international break has been a decompression chamber after weeks and weeks of game after game after game after game. Thank you for it.
This international break probably shouldn’t be happening, given everything. It definitely shouldn’t have three games squeezed into it for each European team.
But while the only thing this international break really has going for it is that England’s qualifying opponents – San Marino, Albania and Poland – represent a scientifically perfect set of England qualifying opponents, it’s also just been… kind of a relief, hasn’t it?
We all know why, but this domestic season has been pretty relentless and often just exhausting. To be clear, I’m not talking about players here. I’m sure they’re quite tired as well. But I’m talking about the rest of us. The people who watch all this stuff. The real heroes.
The thing with football this season is that there just seems to have been so very, very much of it. The reworked fixture list has meant every midweek is full on while most weekends have been four-day affairs with immensely lengthy Saturdays and Sundays. Spreading the games out has allowed us to watch more football than ever before, which is great. But spreading the games out has allowed us to watch more football than ever before, which is terrible.
I’ve been certain for quite some time that this has (understandably) been the ‘worst’ season for several years in terms of quality at the highest level. But I don’t know. I’ve definitely seen more bad football this season than in any other, but I’ve also just seen a lot more football this season than in any other. I’ve also watched an amount of dreary/infuriating Spurs nonsense that should qualify as cruel and unusual.
And I know that technically you don’t have to watch all the football, but that’s a bit like saying you don’t have to eat the whole Easter Egg or you don’t have to shitpost on Twitter. It’s technically true, but impossible to achieve.
Personally, we needed a break.
The last two international breaks didn’t feel like it. They came earlier in the season, for one thing, before we’d been fully overwhelmed by all the Sunday evening games. They also came in quick succession, and also still felt very much like more of the same because every time we switched a game on it seemed to have Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice playing in it, and the international breaks did nothing to alter that.
This break, though, actually feels like it’s a break. A decompression chamber after weeks and weeks of game after game after game after 16 conclusions after game.
Have the matches in this international break been any good? Not really. Not outlandishly, anyway. There have been some moments. Luxembourg beating Ireland just after everyone had kicked off a fresh round of ‘pre-qualifying’ chat was a lovely bit of business.
But it also doesn’t matter. England v San Marino was exactly the game we expected from the moment Gareth Southgate – for undeniably sound yet undeniably drab reasons – picked a team to win 5-0 without fuss rather than 10-0 with elan.
That’s okay. I had zero expectation of that game beyond an England win and some weird commentary from Sam Matterface. I got what I wanted. No stress, no drama. It was much needed.
I don’t really like international breaks as a rule, and maybe that’s precisely why I needed this one. It cannot disappoint.
But it’s only Monday. Give it a couple more days and I’ll be counting down the minutes to the Premier League’s return. Because I am an idiot.
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