MIAMI STADIUM — For England fans, this is always the year. Whether it's a World Cup or a European Championship, they believe in their heart of hearts that their country, the one that invented this sport and then exported it to all the rest, will finally, eventually take its rightful place as champions. Over the last almost 60 years, it just hasn’t happened.
But the Three Lions have been getting closer. They were the losing finalists at the last two Euros. And with Saturday’s 2-1 extra-time win over Earling Haaland and Norway, England is back in the World Cup semifinals for the second time in three editions.
This time, it doesn’t feel like an outlier. Watching England survive the crucible of Mexico City in last weekend’s thrilling 3-2 victory over World Cup co-host Mexico, it was impossible not to notice the mental fortitude of Thomas Tuchel’s team. And it was the same again on Saturday in South Florida, where Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane and the rest of Tuchel’s stars won another match that was less of a soccer game than a street fight.
That hasn’t always been the case for England, who over the last 30-plus years has often performed beneath its talent level. That might be good enough to survive group play consistently or win an early knockout game. Against teams it isn't naturally superior to?
No chance. There’s a reason England has been eliminated in the World Cup quarterfinals more than any other national team in history. This version of England is different.
"The effort, the team spirit, the belief to overcome adversity, to dig in and find ways to win is on the absolutely highest level," Tuchel said afterward. He’s right. And that’s why England is, realistically, a bona fide World Cup contender at long last.
There’s a visceral toughness to this team that, for all their ability, their pampered, high-maintenance predecessors lacked. Call it a willingness to fight for every teammate — even the ones who might represent a hated Premier League rival. That matters more than most think.
Argentina isn't the reigning World Cup champ because it had better players, man for man, than France. Man for man, it didn't. The Albiceleste won because, time and again, they simply refused to be beaten.
That sort of mental strength is rare. Add it to a selfless group that boasts legitimate all-world players like Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane, and damned if Tuchel’s side doesn’t stand their best chance in at least half a century this time around. Facing Switzerland on Wednesday in Atlanta would’ve been easier, to be sure.
But beating the best to be the best is a rite of passage, a requirement, and the defending champs — Argentina scored twice in extra time in Saturday’s nightcap to set up the semifinal everyone who isn’t English wants to see — is a fitting roadblock to have to somehow overcome. Should England clear that hurdle, it surely won’t fear whoever emerges between France and Spain on the stronger side of the bracket. Especially if, as Tuchel believes, England still has another gear to hit.
In his post-match sideline interviews, the German manager raised eyebrows when he said he loved the result if not the performance against Norway. Asked about the exchange, it seemed to catch Bellingham off-guard. An hour later, during his post-game press conference in the bowels of the arena that the NFL's Miami Dolphins call home, Tuchel – whose previous experience has been at Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain – provided some additional context.
"I'm proud and I'm happy," Tuchel said. "But I'm also a football coach and I also have demands." He continued: "I think we can play faster and play more clinical. There were unforced errors and technical mistakes in our game…so a lot of things to do better." If England can clean up those errors and maintain the mentality that has already taken them to the final four for just the fourth time, they’ll be as hard an out as the other three nations — Argentina, France and Spain — still standing.
England's fans have been waiting for a chance like this for decades. Now, after surviving their two toughest tests to date, those supporters could be a mere 90 minutes from seeing their team in its first World Cup final since 1966. "They spend well-earned money to come over and support us," keeper Jordan Pickford said of England’s long-suffering diehards.
"All we want to do," he added, "Is pay them back."
