“And on the fifth day of the 2018 World Cup, that great, recurring soap opera of international sports finally got its chance to begin again: The not-so-mighty but ever-hopeful England National team took the field.”
The New York Times managed to epitomize England in one sentence. As for the game itself, same old England. After a good first half hour and a load of missed chances, conceded a soft penalty and then reverted to same ineffectual, stale, nervy England. The 2nd half was awful – we don’t have the skills or tactical nous to break down a team parking the bus. I actually left to go into work with 10 minutes left in the game. I missed the injury-time winner, so what. England don’t have a chance in hell against a good side – Belgium are probably going to blow us out, but hopefully we will have qualified for the knock out stages by then (if we can’t beat Panama, then we deserve to go home early). Some of the players I am very unsure whether I would consider international quality – Harry Maguire (I had no idea who this stranger was lining up in an England shirt in the tunnel, and I had no idea he played for Leicester) and Kieran Trippier (does he even regularly play for Spurs?) . But perhaps it was the more well-known players who were the least effective – for example Dele Alli and Raheem Sterling. I don’t know – I guess a win is a win, and you kind of think that England can improve as they hopefully progress in the tournament. But this is England, so you can never be optimistic.
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