Although the World Cup was far from a resounding success for the England team and the now departed Sven, it was a success in many other ways.

The most striking for me is the apparent thawing of the hostility between English and German fans. Although there was some trouble, these isolated incidents didn’t seem to dent the overall feeling that the English and Germans actually got on with one another.

In total 315,000 England supporters had attended the tournament in five cities, making a “brilliant” contribution to the competition. Out of 6,000 arrests during the World Cup as a whole, 711 had been English people (though most of those were “preventative” due to drunkenness and those detained were released soon afterwards).
(Source)

I think this World Cup has shown both sets of fans (probably the English who needed convincing more, but anyway) that they are actually very, very similar.

Both have a passion for their country, for football, and for beer. This common ground and the fantastic hospitality shown by the German hosts brought the fans together in a mutual celebration of football (more of that from Germany) and beer drinking (probably a high-scoring draw on that one). The old animosity seems to have been replaced with a feeling of mutual respect - even if we are still very envious of their ability to score from the penalty spot.

Come on Deutschland!

I was surprised by the strong feeling I had to suport Germany, once England were knocked out (in the manner we are now accustomed to) - and I don’t think I was alone either. Friends who were over in Germany for every England game told me that they shared the feeling, and Anglo-German friendship reached a new level amongst football fans.

Part of the reason for the support was the lack of cheating from the German players (something that couldn’t be attached to the other semi-finalists), and the way the Germans had been written off at the start of the competition. We love the underdog in England.

For me the World Cup was an unqualified success (off the field anyway) - and it’s good to see football, and its much-maligned fans, as part of something positive.

Now all we need them to do is teach us how to take penalties…