Even though Andy Murray is from Scotland, he still is a representative of the United Kingdom and therefore gets my juices flowing red, white, and blue with Patriotic pride.

Andy Roddick took out Murray in the Wimbledon semi-finals Friday, the day before America celebrates it's Independence from England. The unique thing about the match is that England rarely has a representative in what is considered the most coveted tennis champiosnhip of them all. Murray had an entire nation behind him with hopes of becoming the first UK representative to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.

Many Americans have won Wimbledon in the past, but Roddick's win at a time where the U.S. doesn't have the talent pool in tennis as it has had in the past made me proud.

Most of all, I wish I could have been in a London Pub to trade barbs with the English. I always have fun in my visits to England while going to soccer matches and when it gets into a discussion regarding our countries, it gets pretty comical, for both sides.

We're all there to have a good time and laugh, but the English while drinking try to goad you into getting angry just to see how far they can go with you. I'm a happy drinker and after a few jabs at each other, we all laugh and drink some more.

One of the many jabs I always keep in my hip pocket is how come an Englishman can't win Wimbledon if they hold it in such high regard. Is it not the greatest tournament in Tennis? How come you can't win you're own tournament?

After they tell me how much George Bush is a wanker and we can't play proper football, I come back with telling them to buy me another pint as part of a down payment for all the money Roosevelt gave Churchill and England during World War II. It gets more laughs, and we drink more.

Then we start talking about Rugby and how an American isn't tough enough to play. Not that they know who the American pro football players are, but I start to give them guys like Ray Lewis, Jon Lynch, Ladanian Tomlinson, Shawn Merriman, and Ed Reed and feel pretty confident my guys would do quite well.

Now it's on to the Olympics where I tell them their most famous Olympic Athlete was a goof named Eddie the Eagle. 

So where are all the great English Athlete's I ask?

They tell me they're more interested in being the best at soccer, which leads me to ask when they last won a World Cup and the final blow is asking how they did in the Euro Cup.

They called me a cold blooded Yank with that low blow, so I bought them more beer and we laughed and sang some more, uniting with the German Bomber song where we insert U.S.A. alongside the R.A.F. portion of the song as a tribute to the many Americans who flew, protected, and/or died for England before the USA was in the war. 

As the night ended after several pints, they tell me that if they hadn't given America away, that we might have some culture over here. We all laugh and they think they've got the last laugh as I get into a cab when I say, I'd much rather have good tasing food than Culture.

It's all in good fun, but I really was happy to see the Yank take down the Brit and give me some more ammo for my next visit.