FIFA World Cup 2026: England Tournament Thread [R]

AT&T Stadium opened in 2009 and it still holds up well. It was probably in comparison a proper game at Wembley given its size and what felt like a massive English support, although the Croatian's were loud. Definitely one of the best stadium environments I've ever been to and it only added to the excitement, nervousness, and anticipation. I'm pretty sure I stood for more than 90% of the match. The official capacity announced was 70,000 and change.

 

About Darren Anderton:

I recognized him (Euro 1996 and France 98') and everybody around me thought he was just some random guy the in-stadium camera panned to lol. Paled in comparison to the reception Cowboy legends Dez Bryant and Emmitt Smith got in their suite.

 

There was a big cheer and the ITV commentators said that was for "some US celebrities on the big screen" so we had no idea who they were. They weren't shown on the broadcast.

 

Top post. Great to see you John! Your British passport is on the way

 

I'm all good with my American passport, but I'll accept an ILR

 

Did we have many American fans?

 

Had to work through the night for my part.time-job so here are some (way too late) thoughts:

-both fullbacks extremely disappointing, James grew into the second half but O´Reilly didn´t even try to defend them most of the time lmao and didn´t offer any sort of attacking threat as expected. Him defending against better/more pacey wingers like say France, Spain, Germany or even Senegal will certainly end in disaster! Even if Hall isn´t a good defender (I think he´s at least better than O´Reilly) he´d at least offer much more threat in attack!
-Gordon again with no attacking output whatsoever. Tuchel will argue with his pressing but his pressing doesn´t really look coordinated with the rest of the group imo. My highlight in a negative sense was the chance to counter when he passed it straight to the Croatian defender instead. Honestly, Rio´d look much better out there than him. Rashford not convincing either apart from his nice finish.
-Was this Pickford´s worst game for England? Is age starting to catch up to him? Should have done much better with their first and I think when in absolute top form he blocks their second but that´s not really a criticism for their second. His passing though was appaling! Hopefully it´s a one-off that´s better to have in the group stages than an omen for his tournament...
-please, please, PLEASE stop with this stuttered run up nonsense for penalties. PLEASE!
-Kane STILL dropping way too deep despite Tuchel´s whole system being designed to maximise his moments in front of goal. Not only does it mean he´s missing upfront but he´s also lost the ball numerous times in dangerous positions due to this, one incident let to their first goal, another to a dangerous counter.
-Rice´s technical limitations clealy showed against the Croatian midfield. Didn´t do too much apart from some good corners but also provided some defensive stability
-happy they created so many chances against a side like Croatia in the first place but they´ll desperately need to improve converting those chances for the knockouts!

rather positive thoughts:
-Spence was great when he came on. Unlucky not to score but it was in full speed, surrounded by defenders and an outstorming Livakovic. Unpopular opinion but he´d be my starting leftback for the rest of the tournament (I know it won´t happen lol)
-Bellingham´s goal was genuinely world-class imo: the replay showed him looking up for only a splitsecond whilst running and in this splitsecond he saw exactly where he needed to place it and executed it perfectly all whilst not slowing down one bit!
-Anderson didn´t have his best game imo and was rather timid with his passing most of the time but got the assist and was solid all-round. his value is most likely only going to increase...
-happy for Madueke to win the pen after all of the abuse for his inclusion (not talking abt genuine concerns like his end product which showed against Costa Rica and yesterday as wel but just outright abuse for his inclusion. Same with Spence).
-good call from Tuchel to focus on standards! These are the fine margins which can decide international tournaments. Still puzzled to this day as to why Southgate seemingly didn´t place much emphasis on this aspect of international football after the WC in Russia anymore...
-and most importantly: Croatia are still a top side who can beat anyone on their day! (although as Catenaccio mentioned multiple times they´re usually even stronger in the knockouts where they have mastered the art of dragging close games to penalties and then winning the shootouts). So having your first game aginst such a strong opponent isn´t ideal but everything considered they can be proud of themselves.

 

Yes... My dad and I.

I'm sure there were plenty more but the area felt very British.

Also a couple of Croats (I think) around us wore England kits

 

Agree on Spence. I'm a bit of an O'Reilly sceptic. I think he's one of those players that excels in one of those niche Guardiola roles. He's seems to lack too many fundamentals as a left-back.

I think Guehi needs to come in for Konsa if we're insisting on playing out from the back. Konsa looked uncomfortable in possession too many times last night.

 

O Reilly was really poor in parts I thought

he kept over committing allowing players to get past him

he looks more like a cm than a fullback

 

Attending a World Cup football match is a great experience. Glad you got to see a good one!

 

Pickford's kicking was a big issue in the last Euro's also, I was hopeful Trafford might have kicked on at City but hopefully he gets his move and puts forward a case to take over by the Euro's.

The being bad on the ball would be one thing if it was just under pressure, but he goes long so often even when there's a simple pass to an open player nearby. Or if he does pass it often holds onto it a ridiculously long time and creates nervy moments, often the option he had gets closed down putting them under pressure. He did the same in the Euro final and kept putting us back under pressure. I'm amazed he hasn't been forced to cut it out. Interesting to read that he and Tuchel were arguing about it last night....

He's an England legend and would have a statue outside of Wembley if we'd won that Euro shoot out, but his ability on the ball gets worse by the year and his shot stopping has become more erratic. I think goalkeeper is perhaps the most important position to know when to move on at the right time.

 

Really loved the performance last night, so much better than any game we played under Mouthgate.

Kane was great, Bellingham quiet first half but came alive second. In fact the whole midfield was good throughout except Gordon who never got into the game. Subs were really positive and I remember thinking at 3-2 up how great it was we could bring on Saka, Rashford and Rogers. Spence also did well when he came on and should have had a goal.

Defensively was a concern, don't think any of the back four played particularly well defensively and Pickford kept flapping at the ball. I think Tuchel should go back to what he played mostly in the qualifiers, Guehi and Konsa.

If we can improve defensively we have a great chance of going far as our attack looks really strong.

 

Really? Do you know that England had the highest gpg at the last World Cup? Under Southgate we regularly topped or were near the top scorers in qualifying. Personally I'd have the win over a much better Croatia at Euro 2020 over last night. Add to that 2-0 against Germany at Euro 2020 and 4-0 against Ukraine also in the knockouts at the same tournament. Perhaps 3-0 vs Senegal at World Cup 2022 as well. 3-2 away against Spain in the Nations League in 2018 and being the first team to beat them in Spain in 15 years deserves a mention too.

 

Utter Legend

 

6 against Iran

 

Always the same excuse people make when we beat a top team. They're not the side threy once we're. Look they're still a top side full of quality players and we made them look bad. People were predicting us to lose before the game. Including me. No more excuses

 

Spence's recovery pace will probably be crucial at some stage. Particularly if he ends up playing next to Stones on that right side. Stones always had Kyle Walker next to him (helping), but now England no longer have Walkers recovery pace, the best option is Spence

 

Some of media seem to have forgotten there were fun matches under Southgate (And considering how nervous I felt anytime soon Croatia got near the goal fun doesn’t always mean good!) Croatia are a good side but so were Ukraine at the Euros in 2021 or Senegal at the last World Cup - those could be seen as fun matches. I think it will fell more positive if we relay it agaisnt Ghana or Croatia do well against Panama,

 

(Opening Game)

 

We were great at World Cup 2022 agreed, 6-2 against Iran, 3-0 against Senegal and Wales. Only time Southgate really played with the shackles off. World Cup 2018 and Euro 2020 and 2024 was such a hard watch most games (remember the 0-0 against Scotland, the struggle to break down Denmark and Slovenia in the group stages etc).

I'm being a bit harsh on Southgate because we generally did well under him but tactically I think Tuchel is much better. His half time team talk had a huge impact yesterday because we absolutely dominated them in the second half and didn't give a sniff. I don't think that happens under Southgate.

Croatia aren't as good as they were in 2018 in an attacking sense and I already mentioned defensively we need to improve but it's still impressive to score four goals against a team that has £75m Gvardiol in it, Vuskovic who's one of the most highly rated young defenders in the game and Likavovic who was one of the best goalkeepers at the last world cup. And we certainly should have scored more than four goals too.

 

That was the opening game.

 

With the best will in the world Rover, Croatia are no longer a top side. They're a good side no doubt but they are very much on the wrong side of their golden generation. Modric looked washed last night if we're honest. It was still a great start to the tournament for England as it's certainly one of the hardest games any of the bigger nations has had in the new expanded format.

 

Southgate suffers from perception - people didn't rate him based on his prior managing career so anything good he did wasn't his doing anything bad England did was solely him, he's judged almost entirely on his failures, which were still better than anything any England manager in history outside the '66 team had managed.

It's funny because the World Cup '90 and Euro '96 teams have always had iconic status in England despite a) going out at earlier stages, and b) plenty of poor games in those tournaments. Southgate gets England to 2 finals and a semi-final and its the sole focus that he didn't get the side over the line.

I guess it's also a good example of the social media age making everyone more miserable and negative.