It’s been six days and I feel like I am slowly coming to peace with England’s exit from Russia. It’s been a negative week though, especially after seeing France win the whole thing. France (along with Germany) are England’s bitter rivals and I have to admit seeing Croatia win the whole thing would have been preferable. Then England could have claimed that they lost to the eventual champions. France of course were the better team (see previous post), but it just sucks that a tournament so full of excitement for England ended in such a bitter way.
I say it was bitter because I truly felt England had the opportunity to beat Croatia. Anytime you get a goal in the opening ten minutes, you immediately put pressure on the opposition. Excellent free kick by Kieran Trippier. But like what happened against Tunisia and Colombia, England surrendered their 1 goal lead. This time though they couldn’t recover and it bit them in the ass. I do have a major gripe with the referee’s decision to award Croatia’s first goal. The Croatian attacker swung his leg so high that it went over England center-back Kyle Walker’s head! For those who don’t know, you can’t stick your boot in the air that high in order to win the ball. It’s unsafe because the player raising his boot could kick someone in the head. I think it was a clear high-boot and a foul should have been awarded the other way. No goal.
What makes me the most mad though is that this very same referee, Turkey’s Cuneyt Cakir, issued a red card to Manchester United winger Nani during a quarterfinal of the Champions League in 2013 against Real Madrid for the same conduct! Nani had his boot in the air around midfield and it likely was a foul, but at most Cakir should have given a yellow. But no, he issues a red. United lost to Madrid since we couldn’t contain them with 10 men. Then this hypocrite and/or blind idiot fails to even award a foul against Croatia for much more dangerous play. Easily could have taken Walker’s head off.
That being said, that goal doesn’t matter nearly as much had England converted some the excellent chances they created in the first half. Most notably, Harry Kane seemed to miss from roughly 1 foot out, something I still don’t understand. Upon further review it seems Danijel Subasic did get back to get a slight touch on the ball, but Kane has to score from there. He went somewhat quiet in the knockout stage compared to the group stage, but losing the game can hardly be blamed solely on him. England stopped going forward in the early part of the 2nd half, and Croatia grew into the game because of it.
Once extra time came around I felt it was going to go to penalties, but then England switched off at the back and Mario Mandzukic took advantage in extra time. I can’t complain really about their second goal, other than it never should have happened cuz England should have won 1-0. England were less than 30 minutes from the World Cup final, only to throw it all away. So depressing. We’ll never know what could have been, a phrase that probably sums up WC 2018 for England.
But all of that being said, if you told me England would make the semifinals before the tournament started, I would have asked you what you were smoking. I had them maybe going to the Round of 16…maybe. England have been so dismal at past tournaments that anything beyond that could have been considered a success. And I must say, this tournament has been great for England in many ways:
- Harry Kane wins the Golden Boot for top-scorer (6 goals)
- Kane scores a hat-trick in a match, first time for England since 1986
- England win a World Cup penalty shoot-out for the first time EVER
- England score 6 goals in a game, the most they’ve ever scored at a World Cup
- 12 goals scored total, most England have ever scored at a World Cup
- England win a knock-out match for the first time since 2006
- England reach the semifinals of the World Cup for the first time since 1990
Most importantly though, the nation fell in love with the national team again. Everything’s been so terrible for so long that even this modicum of success has made everyone feel great. All the scenes of fans celebrating every goal from Newcastle to south London was fantastic. So happy that our fans got something to enjoy this tournament. It’s usually nothing but negativity during the summer every four years in England.
I think the foundation of something good has been laid down here, and I think Gareth Southgate has done very well to instill the proper tactics and mentality in this team. They’re one of the youngest teams at this tournament, and I feel they will continue to do well at Euro 2020 and also in Qatar in 2022. They’ll be older and wiser in 2 and 4 years. Not sure I want England to partake in the Qatar tournament, but that’s another post for another time.
I sincerely hope this isn’t a false-dawn, but you have to feel that the system and the players work well with each other, and the players play for one another instead of themselves. Club rivalries get swept aside and they play for the Three Lions. England’s quarterfinal win over Sweden was easily the most complete match I have ever seen England play. Good goals, good midfield play, mostly-good defending, and excellent goalkeeping. If they can keep their strong mentality and add some decent bench players in the coming years, they will continue to do well. We still have a ways to go to catch the elites, but for the first time in a long time, it feels the team is headed in the right direction.
Player of the tournament for England: right wing-back Kieran Trippier. Yes Kane did well with his goals, and yes Jordan Pickford is an excellent keeper, but Trippier played splendidly in every game he played in. His deliveries into the box from the right wing were consistently excellent and usually led to England creating chances and scoring. His free kick was the cherry on top of a fantastic tournament for him. Tireless work-rate as well. Ran his legs off every match. Tottenham have themselves a fantastic couple of players and I think they will do big things in the coming season. Special mention for Pickford as well. Goalkeeping blunders have always been a trademark of England at World Cups, but not this time. Consistently good and even excellent throughout.
Where do England go from here? No one knows for sure, but all the signs point upwards. Fans have to believe in the team while realizing that there is still work to be done!
4-4-2 