ATLANTA STADIUM — By the time Thomas Tuchel began speaking, there wasn’t an empty seat in the room. There wasn’t a square foot of floor space, either. It wouldn’t even be accurate to call Tuchel’s press conference even a standing-room-only affair, as a line of reporters and camera crews snaked all the way out the door.
Yet there was Tuchel, England’s German coach, smiling and looking relaxed as anyone could less than 24 hours before the biggest moment of a career that already included a UEFA Champions League crown. What’s his secret? Ice cream, it turns out.
On Wednesday, Tuchel will lead the best Three Lions squad in decades into the semifinals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup against Lionel Messi and defending champions Argentina. The stakes are enormous for both nations but especially the English, who haven’t reached the title game since winning their one and only World Cup 60 years ago this month. Figuratively speaking.
Tuchel and his players have stared death during this knockout stage. They went down a goal to DR Congo in the round of 32 and to Norway in last weekend’s quarterfinal. They went down a man in the thin air of Mexico City against the tournament co-host El Tri.
They survived and advanced each time. Between those emotionally draining elimination games, Tuchel has done everything possible to keep his players loose, giving them time to unwind and recover at the team’s base camp in Kansas. How does he do the same for himself, the former Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund boss was asked shortly after England’s delegation landed in Georgia’s stately capital.
"Sometimes you just go on a bike and then you just need a big parking lot and an ice cream in your hands for 15 minutes," a smiling Tuchel said. "Then you feel like [you’re ]15 years old — 15 not 50," added the 52-year-old, as some of those in attendance chuckled. "You feel like 12 or 13 or 15 years old and you enjoy your evening — a warm summer evening for 15 minutes with an ice cream." The admission was an endearing one from the famously intense Tuchel, who caught some heat following his team’s gutsy fight-back against Norway for criticizing afterward England’s performance from a pure soccer perspective, though he gushed about his players’ heart and never-say-die will to win.
Tuchel’s words appeared to catch Player of the Match Jude Bellingham off-guard in the moment, leading to speculation that the coach had annoyed one his top players and, potentially, others, too. Center back Marc Guéhi did his best to correct the record on Tuesday. "I think the manager's done a great job," said Guéhi "He's created a squad where there's a big togetherness and a real belief in what we're doing at the moment, and everyone's behind him.
We're glad to have him." The feeling is mutual. "They simply don't give in," Tuchel said of his squad. "his is the key attribute of our team, which makes me very proud." Will it be enough to see off Messi & Co.?
If it is and England punches its ticket to face Spain — which beat France on Tuesday in the other semi in Dallas — Tuchel will be just one more victory away from history. Not only would he become the only coach alive to lead England back to the biggest match in sports, he’d also have the chance to become the first foreign manager to win a World Cup. No country, men’s or women’s, has ever hoisted the trophy under a coach who wasn’t a citizen of that nation — not that Tuchel is thinking about that.
"Never," he said. "It just doesn't work like this for me. I don't set these goals.
I just love what I do, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. "I just try to be the best coach possible every single day," he added. "I have to influence what I can, and that's where my energy goes." That and on the occasional frozen dessert.
