England Out of World Cup: Harry Kane Says Holding On Was Not Enough Against Argentina

England lose World Cup semi-final to Argentina 2-1 in Atlanta; holders stun Three Lions with remarkable late comeback as they score twice in the space of seven minutes; Enzo Fernandez’s leveller and Lautaro Martinez’s stoppage-time winner sets up final against Spain. England captain Harry Kane admitted trying to hold on to a 1-0 lead backfired as their World Cup hopes were ended by Argentina’s late show in a 2-1 semi-final defeat. Anthony Gordon fired England into a 55th-minute lead, but Argentina wrestled the momentum in the game, and this time Thomas Tuchel’s substitutions did not work as Lionel Messi laid on late goals for Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez to turn it around. (Photo: Kane and Messi).

“I’m gutted,” Kane said. “I’m gutted for the boys, I’m gutted for everyone: the team, the staff, the fans. We played a good game for the large majority of it. Once we went 1-0 up, we seemed to just try to hold on, which at this level is just not enough, so I’m gutted. We worked so hard to be here. The lads have given every last bit of running, sweat, blood, tears, whatever it is, so to fall short like today is just gutting.” Kane claimed the message from Tuchel and his staff was to keep pushing after Gordon’s goal, but it felt as though England increasingly retreated, inviting the pressure which Argentina turned to their advantage.

“We struggled to get pressure on the ball (after the goal),” he said. “I thought especially in the first half and at the start of the second half, we pressed them well, put them under loads of pressure, especially high up the pitch, which allowed us to win balls and control the game a little better. After the goal, whether they were putting more men forward or us not being able to match them man-to-man, it was just wave after wave. The lads were putting blocks in, but in the end, it was not enough.

“The boys were always ready for any moment in the game. When we went ahead, the messaging was to go again and get another goal. Once they scored their two goals, it was to try to find something, but we couldn’t find any momentum to get back in the game.” Kane added, “We’ve had a lot of good moments in this tournament. We’ve had a lot of good games, another semi-final. We talk about knocking on the door. We’re close. We just need to find that missing piece. (Photo: Bellingham).

“These tournaments take it out of you. There’s so much effort, pressure, mentality. We’ve shown a lot of that in the last six, seven weeks we’ve been together. We’re just missing that final piece.” Tuchel described his England side as “too passive” after going ahead against Argentina but insisted he had “no regrets” over his tactical decisions in the defeat. We’re disappointed, but we got too passive after we scored and conceded a lot of chances and could not turn the ball possession over,” Tuchel said.

“We just conceded so many crosses and chances, and shots. We were close, but we couldn’t keep the level up after we scored.” Asked about his substitutions, Tuchel insisted the issue was not structural. Of course, we wanted to go for the second goal, but I did not have the feeling that offensive substitutions would help,” he said. “We stayed in our 4-4-2, but we became passive, more and more passive. We couldn’t win any balls, we couldn’t keep the ball, so I think it was not a structural problem; we changed nothing. But the match changed completely.

“It’s no problem, I can understand these discussions are out there, and there are millions of coaches after the game who know it better.” But even as criticism quickly followed from pundits and fans, Tuchel insisted he had no regrets. “The team gave everything,” he said. “We were very, very close. I think we deserved to be 1-0 up. We played one of our better matches, maybe the best match in the circumstances. It was tough. We couldn’t bring it over the line. No regrets.

‘A Coaching Catastrophe’ – Pundits and Reporters Deliver Verdicts as England Crashed Out of the World Cup…

Sky Sports‘ Gary Neville: “England will never have a better chance to reach a final than that. They were five minutes plus stoppage time away from the final. They got too narrow and too deep. It was very similar to the Euro final against Italy. It’s about mentality and belief in England, and a bit of quality to keep the ball. I can’t believe how many times I have seen this from England in a tournament.” Sky Sports‘ Roy Keane: “Argentina made the most of the momentum. They showed a lot of quality in the end. The best team won.”

Sky Sports’ Paul Merson: “Gareth Southgate took a lot of stick for being defensive – and I thought he did well – and Tuchel has come in and done the same as Gareth. I understand it in the Mexico game when we are down to 10 men, and we are going to be under the cosh, but here we had to throw something different at them. I understand Gareth being a defensive coach; he was a defender, so naturally, he is going to be defensive. But I didn’t think that about Tuchel, and I thought he would throw something different at Argentina and put the pressure on them. We’ve got to learn from it and look forward to the Euros.”

Sky Sports News’ Rob Dorsett in Atlanta: “It feels overwhelmingly that Tuchel got that wrong. The man whom the FA employed because of his brilliant tactical nous in knockout games has to hold his hands up. England scored and had the upper hand, and Tuchel immediately shifted to try to hold what they had. Sitting deep for more than half an hour, with stoppage time to go shifted all the momentum to Argentina. England can have no complaints. The better side won, but there’s an awful feeling that this was to a large degree self-inflicted.”

Sky Sports’ Ron Walker: “Did England need to go so deep so early? It’s easy to say in hindsight, but the outcome of Tuchel’s decision to switch to a back five with 71 minutes gone was as painful to watch as it must have been to play in. They didn’t just surrender territory; they gave up almost 93 per cent of the ball in the 21 minutes between switching to a back five and conceding the winner. Ultimately, the Three Lions didn’t manage a single touch in the opposition box after scoring -, but when England fell back on their natural inclination to sit back, Tuchel’s changes only compounded their problems.”

Sky Sports’ Pete Gill: “Unfathomable from England. They asked for defeat from a winning position. We can argue that it worked in the last two matches. But the big point is that it was clear it wasn’t working against this quality of opposition long before Argentina scored their equaliser and England lost all of their momentum.”

Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Solhekol: “Exactly what happened in Russia in 2018 has happened again. Ultimately, Tuchel got his substitutions wrong. He put on too many defensive players, and England retreated into their shell and were trying to hold on to what they had – and you can’t do that against a side as well as Argentina, with arguably the best player the world has ever seen.”

Former England striker Chris Sutton: “It was a coaching catastrophe from Thomas Tuchel. The fact that England get themselves in front and then basically hand Argentina the initiative, defending deep, another defender on. “It’s quite a simple game of football, you have to get up the pitch. You can’t expect to defend for 30 minutes against the quality Argentina have and keep giving the ball back to them, that’s what England did and it’s all on the coach as far as I’m concerned.”

Former England captain Alan Shearer: “England had six defenders on the pitch, (he) played his hand and wanted to hang on. Hanging on vs Norway and Mexico.. they perhaps don’t have the quality Argentina have in terms of ability on ball and to punish, plus their attitude. He played his cards very early in the hope that he could hang on, and it backfired. Those decisions are the ones that can make such a difference.”

Former England striker Wayne Rooney: “We have to be honest. The decisions Thomas Tuchel made have cost England. If you’re an attacking player on that pitch and you go 1-0 up and you see the changes which the manager’s making, you’re losing belief, there’s only so many times you can get away with it. Then you start thinking, oh no, we’re going to sit back for this long, how are we going to get through this?”

Former England goalkeeper Joe Hart: “I don’t see anything’s changed in that big moment out there. Thomas Tuchel, for as much praise as we’ve given him, for him to change it as soon as he did, I think he realised that’s him saying he didn’t believe in his team, he didn’t think they could land any more punches on Argentina.” Courtesy: Sky Sports. (Photo: Spain won).

Spain Show Teamwork May Yet Win Out in World Cup of Superstars as Kylian Mbappe and France Eliminated

Nick Wright Football Features Writer@nicholaspwright

Spain clinched a dominant 2-0 win over France to claim their place in Sunday’s World Cup final, where they will face either England or Argentina; Kylian Mbappe cut a forlorn figure as Luis de la Fuente’s side showed the power of the collective over individuals. France’s attacking firepower was the focus of the build-up to their World Cup semi-final against Spain. If it wasn’t Kylian Mbappe who did the damage, it would surely be Ousmane Dembele. Or Michael Olise. Or Bradley Barcola. Or Desire Doue.

As it transpired, their threat was almost entirely negated. France threw Rayan Cherki into the mix too but were made to look toothless. How? “In front of them they had the best team in the world,” said Spain’s head coach, Luis de la Fuente, afterwards. This so-called World Cup of superstars, in which Mbappe and Lionel Messi have scored eight goals each, and others, including Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior, have also delivered, may yet be won by the strongest collective.

It is hard to argue with De la Fuente’s description of his team. Having guided Spain to European Championship success two years ago, this was his 13th win in 14 major tournament games as head coach. It must rank as one of the most convincing. France were torn through at one end and limited to chances worth only 0.30 expected goals at the other. “Spain dominated the game in every single aspect,” said Patrick Vieira, a World Cup winner with France during his playing days, on ITV.

Spain circulated the ball with their usual composure, moving France around, opening gaps and then exploiting them. Their second goal, finished by Pedro Porro after a one-two with Dani Olmo, was just one of many examples of France being pulled apart and came from a passing move which began deep in their own half. Spain have averaged 64 per cent possession at the tournament so far. They have made roughly 200 more passes in the final third than any other side. Their capacity to suffocate opponents is unrivalled. But they do it without the ball as well as with it.

Possession was actually roughly even against France. But there was a mismatch in how the two sides used it and an even bigger difference in their off-the-ball efforts. While France defended as a group of individuals, Spain did so as a choreographed unit. “They won the game because of out of possession today,” said Roy Keane on ITV. “We all love watching brilliant teams who are a joy to watch, but you’ve got to remind yourself of what they do out of possession. They worked in packs. There was intensity and purpose to their play. It was almost the opposite of the French.”

“Tactically, they were all over the French team,” added Vieira. “When you look at the forward players of Spain, they worked really hard to not let the French players get on the ball.” France struggled to get the ball into shooting positions and, when they did, they were met by defenders, such as Marc Cucurella, ready to put their bodies on the line. The result was that Mbappe, Dembele, Olise and the rest were left frustrated. Spain do of course, have a superstar of their own. Lamine Yamal has grown into the tournament following his return from a hamstring injury. He won the penalty off Lucas Digne for Spain’s opener and tormented the France left-back throughout.

But the 19-year-old has only scored once in seven games so far. He has not caught fire in the same way as so many other high-profile individuals at the tournament. Spain, though, have not needed him to, such is their collective power. It is difficult to imagine that France would have got this far had Mbappe only scored once. The same can be said of Argentina and Messi, and indeed of England and Kane, even if, in Bellingham, he has a team-mate now sharing the scoring burden. “They play more in moments,” as Gary Neville put it of the three semi-finalists other than Spain before the game. All of which is not to say Spain have not benefited from invaluable individual contributions. Rodri is proving beyond any doubt at the tournament that he remains the world’s best in his position. (Photo: France lost).

He won 11 of his 15 duels against France, dominating the midfield on and off the ball. But the technical and tactical qualities that best define his game are apparent among Spain’s other midfielders, too. Consider how Martin Zubimendi, who has not featured at all at the tournament, stepped in for him at half-time of the European Championship final win against England two years ago. It is no stretch to say Pedri could fulfil a similar role if needed this time.

Fabian Ruiz, meanwhile, has slotted seamlessly into the team in the last two games. Up front, Mikel Oyarzabal has top scored with five goals, but Spain look just as dangerous when using his deputy Ferran Torres, who has a similarly strong understanding of the role.  Then there is Mikel Merino, whose knack for impacting games from the bench typifies the collective buy-in of the squad. It all adds up to make Spain the strongest team, in the true sense of the word, and, quite possibly, the most likely winners of this so-called World Cup of superstars. Courtesy: Sky Sports