Were there more people than us who were about to get the non-alcoholic beer in their throats, when Thomas Tuchel cleared the pitch of offensive players after the 1-0 lead and was going to “defend his way to victory? Wayne Rooney said it immediately, this is going to “football hell” – and it was true.
Okay, England sent Norway out of the World Cup, but we are part of the generation that hopes the Three Lions can one day bring home the World Cup trophy. It won’t be 60 years after the last title either, Thomas Tuchel made sure of that.
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The German has made wise choices earlier in the championship with player compositions and substitutions, but what really happened on Wednesday in the semi-final against Argentina?
Argentina has the best player in history still very operational, Lionel Messi had throughout the tournament shown the world he not only still has the skills, vision and player understanding like no other in the world, he just needs one chance to decide games. So when Tuchel decides to send all men into defence with sea of time left on the match clock, he let go to the Argentine terriers, with Messi free to direct and send in one brilliant input after another.
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You saw the English players really unhappy in the role of playing half a half in defence with Messi and lightning-fast, attacking Argentines hammering away to create cracks in the defensive wall. And the dam burst. First in the 85th minute, then the 90th+2nd minute to a 2-1 lead for Argentina.
After this, it became almost comical to see half a team of English centre-backs suddenly try to be offensive in the final minutes.
Argentina deservedly won, England must enter the new years with “football is not coming home”.
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It’s easy to sit on the couch and claim that Norway would have done better than England against Argentina, but Ståle Solbakken would never, never, never have been so arrogant to believe that Norway, with half a team of defenders, would be able to keep Messi and the reigning world champions Argentina away from scoring. We would still be pedaling. With lower risk, yes, but ensured that Lionel Messi could not be allowed to do as he wanted – and undisturbed do what he does better than anyone else in the world – until victory is assured.
Could we also have scored against Argentina, like England. Definitely!
