Henry Winter’s World Cup Diary, Day 32
Order the latest copy of World Football here
After such results, countless tasks fall on reporters. In one hour of my full time I first presented my match report, blew the whistle and did Radio 4 (and you know it’s a serious event when they’re involved), podcasted with legend Tim Vickery and released two short reaction videos. Usually, there’s a cathartic element to it, a therapy to get almost all the emotions out of my system with a performance and a result. Not this time. The rage continues.
It continues because it was a wasted opportunity. Consider this quote: “They were more afraid of leaving the tournament than they were excited and hungry to win it.” Thomas Tuchel’s words come back to haunt him. This was England’s new head coach’s performance against England under Gareth Southgate in an interview with ITV on 20 March 2025. Tuxel was preparing to lead England for the first time against Albania at Wembley. He actually claimed England were too scared to win Euro 2024.
They were cautious when it really mattered most, and much of the criticism for that was aimed at Southgate. Yet here in Atlanta England were again defending deep, again defending the lead, again failing. And Tuchel was primarily responsible with his defensive singles.
Of all the stats that damned Tuchel’s disastrous second-half coaching, it was just 12% possession in the 37 minutes between England’s dominance and Anthony Gordon regaining the lead for Argentina.
The 37 minutes that cost England their chance to reach the World Cup final. Thirty-seven minutes of passivity, sitting, waiting for defenders to appear and stop.
Tuchel was supposed to be this elite coach who removed the fear. Instead, he injected a team that needed a more front-foot approach. Gordon went and deprived England of the out-ball. Tuchel pointed to defensive issues. How dare he put some of the blame on the players. Hope Tuchel admits how he missed out.
Subscribe to World Football
⚽ ⚽
Time for Harry Kane to retire? No. As in Atlanta, Kane is still comfortably England’s best player in attack. He probably still has Euro 2028 at 34. But the 2030 World Cup will be too much. This is one of the reasons why there is so much anger among England fans at this wasted opportunity.
⚽ ⚽
There is a lot of research into the preparation of goalkeepers for penalties. So it was fascinating to see Jordan Pickford’s water bottle images plastered with details of how individual Argentinian players would react to penalties. Pickford was a “fake left-right dive” tip for Lionel Messi. When Gonzalez faced Montiel, Pickford’s instruction was “Dive to the left.” Defender Hugo Lloris dived to the left against Montiel in the 2022 final and the Argentina defender had already passed the ball the other way. He also turned to the right of Roma goalkeeper Bono to beat Sevilla in the 2023 Europa League final. Not all advice is accurate.
⚽ ⚽
Interest in the third place playoff – now the bronze medal match – is always limited. El Losico. The race for the golden boot could be interesting for Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe, but nothing else. They fell from $1900 to $767 to $691 in five hours last night. If it continues, the ticket price could be cheaper than the $250 official FIFA-sanctioned parking fee. You still have 23 minutes to Miami Stadium.
⚽ ⚽
I left the stadium surrounded by a sea of blue and white. It was a human tea of Argentina fans wearing Messi shirts. What was particularly noticeable was how many families and couples there were. It’s important to remember that when people criticize Argentina’s support as a bunch of British-hating Malvinists. We walked back to our hotel with a friend who was an England supporter and he stopped a couple of Argentinians along the way to congratulate them and wish them luck in the final. They were instead utterly charming, almost comforting. Good luck to them against the Spaniards.
⚽ ⚽
All of this is a huge marketing opportunity for MLS. Having one of their players, Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi, star in the World Cup, mostly on home soil, is a huge coup and one they will surely use to promote the league. Messi could even win the World Cup again and take home the Ballon d’Or and the Golden Boot. MLS still needs to convince much of the US public. Messi can help in this challenge.
Check out the rest of Henry Winter’s World Cup Diary here