ATLANTA — In the end, it always ends the same for England at a major tournament: regrets, what ifs and a devastating defeat.
What if England had just gone for it when they went 1-0 up against Argentina with 35 minutes to go and had a first World Cup final appearance in 60 years within reach?
What if Thomas Tuchel stuck with his plan instead of switching to a back five?
What if he bought on attacking players to try and pin back surging Argentina?
What if England hadn’t retreated to the edge of their own box and had just 12 percent possession after they went ahead?
What if England’s players had figured out Lionel Messi had drifted out to the right wing to cause maximum chaos and stopped him?
What if. What if. What if.
In the end it’s always the same for England.
At the start of this tournament one England fan in Boston told me this: “Disappointment and frustration are our oldest friends.”
And for many reasons this defeat was self-inflicted.
Harry Kane: “It has been the missing piece for the last four or five tournaments”
Just like the 2018 World Cup semifinal defeat to Croatia and the European Championship final defeat to Italy in 2021, they will have massive regrets about how they folded when they were on top.
As soon as England went ahead I thought: “okay, let’s see if they’ve learned and progressed.” They hadn’t.
This defeat was more about England collapsing than Argentina’s brilliance.
England’s players and fans stood in stunned silence as Argentina went bonkers around them at the final whistle. They couldn’t believe it had happened again.
“It’s a similar story to what has happened in previous tournaments. We’ve struggled to keep the momentum of the game,” a dejected England captain Harry Kane told reporters afterwards, just moments after he had stood staring at England’s devastated fans in the stands.
“We did so well for 60 minutes. We scored, deserved to be ahead, then for one reason or another we struggled to keep the ball, struggled to put pressure on the ball and it allowed them to create more momentum, it created more attacks for them in our final third. It’s the normal mindset to try and hang on to a one-goal lead. But it was still 20 minutes plus stoppage time to go, so it was always going to be a long time. We are going to have to watch the game back and see exactly how we can improve in those situations. It has been the missing piece now for the last four or five tournaments.”
Why did this all feel so similar to those other recent defeats in the biggest moment when it mattered most? What is that missing piece Kane is referring to?
“Tough question for me to answer right now,” England’s Dan Burn told Pro Soccer Talk afterwards. “I think the difference is that Argentina have been there, done that and had the confidence that they were going to do it. I genuinely thought that we were going to do it the whole time. Even when I entered the pitch I was confident that we could do it. But I think when you get at this level of football there are very fine margins. I know it’s easy to say but it is fine margins. They took two chances and scored.”
Drowning their sorrows in a pub not far from the stadium with many fellow England fans after the game, father and son Harvey and David from Manchester were trying their best to stay upbeat.
But they had to admit that England were their own worst enemies.
“At the end of the day we deserved to lose,” Harvey said. “We did the same thing we’ve done at previous competitions which is sit back and haven’t played attacking football. [Jordan] Pickford was unbelievable, [Djed] Spence was unbelievable. In the end they [Argentina] deserved to win, they played better football, but not for the first 70 minutes. We could have done so much better.”
England accepted their fate
All in all, England simply didn’t grasp the moment when it was there for them.
Belief grew among the fans throughout this tournament. Pretty much every fan I met in Boston, New York, Miami and Atlanta believed this was England’s time. It wasn’t. Again.
Before this tournament started many believed they would reach the semifinals and they did. They basically matched expectation levels, but along the way they did connect with their fans and show fight and spirit and dug deep to make it to the final four amid plenty of clunky displays. They were impressively scrappy and found a way to win games. They genuinely seemed to enjoy playing for England and for one another and haven’t crumbled like past England teams.
England’s fans like this team and the players Tuchel picked and it seemed different at this tournament. Those feelings won’t change just because of a few bad substitutions and tactical tweaks.
“I have been supporting England home and away for 18 years and I can’t remember a time before when it has felt like the team is this much of a community and have so much of a bond within themselves and with us as fans,” Anoushka Probyn said in Atlanta “That is such a beautiful thing to be part of and I feel very lucky to be out here and be a part of that. I think they really represent what being English means in this day and age. I think that is really special.”
But when England’s players had to go the extra step to finish off the job they couldn’t do it. Again.
Leaders Kane, Declan Rice, John Stones and Jordan Pickford have all been key in deep tournament runs but something is still missing. Perhaps past disappointments impacted them in the late collapse.
They simply didn’t seem to believe they could see this out because they haven’t in the past. They also seemed to be struggling fitness wise after grueling back-to-back games against Mexico at altitude in Mexico City and Norway in the heat of Miami.
Or maybe Messi’s quality and Argentina’s incredible will to win was the difference on Wednesday. Whatever it was, England simply accepted their fate. That was the worrying part. It was like instinct kicked in.
England’s stars wilted in the key moment. Again.
“It’s gutting. When you come within 10-15 minutes of a World Cup final and don’t get it done, it hurts,” Burn continued. “I thought we nailed the gameplan until we scored. We did really well and knew what Argentina were going to do and I thought we dealt with it well. Then we got a bit passive after the goal, defended a bit too deep and the quality of chances Argentina were creating I felt like it was a matter of time. We conceded too many chances and too many crosses. It’s hard because in previous games we’ve defended those so well. To get that close and not to do it, it’s very sad.”
Nobody for England stood up and tried to do something different on the pitch to stop wave after wave of Argentina attack.
They all left it to somebody else. They couldn’t seem to cope with the pressure when it mattered most.
“You can’t let Argentina knock at the door. We can do it against Norway, do it against Mexico, but we can’t let Argentina just knock at the door for 30 minutes. It’s ridiculous,” Harvey said. “To be 1-0 up in the 85th minute and not even take it to extra time. It’s ridiculous. I love the boys, they’ve done a great job, I love Tuchel, I can’t fault any of them.”
England still did well to reach the semifinals, which was maybe the ceiling for this squad, but that lingering sense of ‘what if’ remains.
Tuchel’s tactics didn’t help matters
Was this all on the players? Of course not.
Thomas Tuchel has been extremely defensive in his post-game comments and said he had no regrets. The players have said they wanted to go for it and push for a second goal when they were ahead. Tuchel was hired by England to make the best in-game decisions and win the tournament.
He came up short when it mattered most and seemed to signal to his team that he didn’t believe they could beat Argentina in an open, end-to-end game in the final 30 minutes.
“You can discuss this with a million coaches [but] I have to make a decision on the pitch,” Tuchel told the BBC after the game. “I analyzed the match and I did it a certain way so that’s my responsibility.
“In the moment, no regrets. The team gave everything and we were very, very close. We deserved to be up 1-0. We played one of our better matches, maybe our best match in the circumstances. The team was top, we couldn’t get over the line but no regrets.”
But Tuchel switching to a back five early and bringing on the subs he did backfired. Massively. It meant England actually gave Argentina more space out wide and in the box because England’s players were leaving it to each other.
They thought just being in those positions was enough instead of being tighter and actually playing the game and defending like they had for the first 60 minutes. Structurally it all fell apart. England’s players aren’t used to playing that way. Nobody took responsibility. They stopped playing and didn’t keep the ball and invited constant pressure. That coupled with ultra-defensive subs meant they couldn’t get out.
Did those changes cost England the chance to be in the World Cup final?
“It’s not the time to talk about that but there’s always going to be these type of discussions when it doesn’t quite fall your way,” Kane said. “I think we wanted to get more pressure on the wide areas with the five at the back and the extra man for the crosses. But we still couldn’t quite get the pressure on there.
“Then whenever we won the ball or cleared the ball we didn’t keep it well enough. That is a big part of it as well, to try and shift the momentum and try to finish the game off with the second goal. It is hard to process it all right now. We have to improve and we win and lose together. That’s just the way it goes.”
England’s fans were a bit divided after the game about the tactics and whether it was Tuchel’s fault, the players not stepping up or just the brilliance of Messi as to why they are out of the tournament.
“Mate, I love Tuchel, I want him to stay,” Harvey said. "[Gareth] Southgate was great, I have a lot of respect for him, but it is just the type of football he played didn’t fit what we wanted to do. Tuchel has been class. I have no complaints, apart from the fact we just sat back today because that is so against what I expected from Tuchel.”
Ultimately that decision from Tuchel cost England the chance of playing for the World Cup trophy.
Can England get over the line before Kane retires?
And Kane in particular knows his window is closing when it comes to winning a major tournament with England.
The European Championships on home soil in 2028 looks like his best, and final, chance to finally win some silverware with England.
Kane turns 33 soon and he probably has one more World Cup in him. He pointed to Messi to prove that he can keep going for a while longer, but England’s legendary forward didn’t rule out this being his last World Cup.
“It’s too early to start talking about that. As a person I take it year-by-year and see how I feel,” Kane explained. “The England national team is my pride and joy. It’s what I love to do most, more than anything. Four years is a long way away and I’ll be 33 this summer. But as you see at the other end with Leo [Messi] there, he’s still performing at the highest level. I never want to put a limit on these things. I address every situation as it comes. For now it’s about processing another tough loss with this team.”
Kane has now suffered two European Championship final defeats and two World Cup semifinal defeats with England. All in agonizing fashion.
England have to make the most of having such a prolific forward in the form of his life.
With Kane approaching the twilight of his career, England’s captain revealed how big of a blow this was and was asked what he said to the team after.
“There’s not much to say. Everyone has to process what has happened,” Kane said. “Everyone is gutted. I’m gutted for all the boys, all the staff, everyone behind the scenes because we know how much everyone puts in to be a successful national team. When you’re so close, 10-plus minutes away, and it slips out of your hands like that obviously the lads are devastated. Now we just have to take it on the chin. There’s nothing else we can do. We congratulate Argentina and go away and try to improve.”
In the end, it’s always the same for England.
They build up hope, come so close and then lose in some of the most devastatingly crushing ways possible and congratulate someone else.
Football, once again, is not coming home.
And it’s because England blew it.
