Two continents, two tales of woe

My English friend was slightly pleased after Andy Murray won Wimbledon today. He wrote the following on Facebook:

WAAAAHOOOOOOOOO!First the Red Sox, now Andy Murray. Come on Cubbies, you're up fellas!

When I replied that the English national soccer team has a better chance of ending its World Cup drought than the Cubs do of ending their World Series dry spell, he suggested I write about "who sucks more."

Consider it done, mate.

* * * * *

Other than the fact that neither has won the big prize in a long time, comparing English soccer and Cubs baseball actually isn't actually fair.

From my distance of being both in America (at least until my vacation coming up in London this fall) and a fairly new soccer fan, it's interesting to see the English obsession with its national soccer side. Every personnel move, coaching change and result -- whether a competitive match or friendly -- is a morality play, with fans and pundits dissecting every little detail to figure out What It All Means.

In their excellent book "Soccernomics," Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski dedicate an entire chapter not just to the stages of English World Cup campaigns leading up to the inevitable failure and rationalizations that follow (the English version of the book is called "Why England Lose"), but also to the argument that based on a series of factors, including population, England actually does as well, if not a little better, than it should.

England typically fields a good team, with good players, but they always manage to fall short somehow. (In my real life, I am famous/infamous in my circle of friends for providing running commentary on Facebook about awards shows. This year's Oscars featured the post "A tie for an Oscar? I say penalty kicks! So long as no one involved in either movie is English." Easiest joke ever.)

The Cubs, on the other hand, certainly have their history of heartbreaking moments ... 

... but they've also been terrible a lot of the time.

Seriously, while England fans surely will be convinced that next year will the year they bring home the World Cup, and they no doubt will be taking a good team to Brazil if they qualify, any Cubs fan who thinks they'll win the World Series next year either knows something the rest of us don't or is seriously deluded.

I put my money on seriously deluded.