England fans choose the darts over joining in World Cup’s big fan energy

T imes Square has been the setting for viral fan activity during this World Cup , from the Norwegian mass elliptical rowing session to Germans jumping up and down while wearing culturally insensitive headgear. On Friday, the day before the Three Lions face Panama in their decisive Group L fixture, it was surely England’s turn to seize centre stage. As various news crews waited at the junction of Broadway and 42nd Street to capture the moment, however, the only visible presence was two blokes holding up a flag of St George with “Seaham Harbour” written on it. “We don’t usually do dances or anything like that”, explained Joe, one of the flag-bearers, who hails from Florida via Sunderland and says he works for Nasa in crowd control. “We just like to do arm curls as we call it and have a good time.” He mimes the specific curl, it is the kind that moves a glass from bar to mouth. England fans – only 10,000 are expected to travel – are going under the radar at the World Cup, with little of the media attention that has followed other nations. Much of this is good news, because it means there has been no trouble. To this point there has not been a single arrest of an England supporter in the US in the three weeks that they have been here. The only friction, and even this was perfectly polite, came in Boston earlier this week when some bar owners made it clear they’d rather be serving the Scots. Joe is also right, however, in that English fans do things differently. …