Southgate, England face music of soccer history
MOSCOW — Gareth Southgate and England are ready to face the music.
No other soccer nation dwells on decades of failure quite like the English. Southgate was so demoralized by his penalty kick failure against Germany in the 1996 European Championship semifinals, he avoided The Lightning Seeds’ “Three Lions,” the team’s official song when it hosted the tournament.
Now the song, with its repeated chorus of “football’s coming home,” is a staple again, No. 5 this week on YouTube U.K.’s top music videos chart, with more than two million views on the day of England’s last match.
“‘Football’s coming home’ is a song I couldn’t even listen to for 20 years, frankly, so for me it has a slightly different feel,” Southgate said Tuesday on the eve of England’s World Cup semifinal match against Croatia. “But it’s nice to hear people enjoying it again.”
England hasn’t played in the semifinals of a major tournament since Southgate’s penalty kick at Wembley was saved by Andreas Koepke 22 years ago, and Andreas Moeller put the next kick over David Seaman and under the crossbar.
The most-cherished national team memory remains the 1966 World Cup final victory at Wembley over West Germany, a demarcation point in the island’s history as much as 1066
(the Norman invasion) and 1707 (union with Scotland).
“It was a long time ago, so not too many of us can remember that far back,” said midfielder Jordan Henderson, born in 1990.
The winner on Wednesday advances to Sunday’s final against France.
England and Croatia have innovated over time but have generally been immutable at the World Cup, sticking to virtually identical starting lineups except for group phase finales, after advancement was secure.
In the other four games, Croatia’s only variable to its 4-2-3-1 formation was whether to start captain Luka Modric in a deep midfield role and Andrej Kramaric more advanced, or to move up Modric and start Marcelo Brozovic.
Right back Sime Vrsaljko limped off during the quarterfinal win over host Russia, and goalkeeper Danijel Subasic had a hamstring injury during extra time but remained in the match.
England has gone with a 3-5-2, and the only change was to start Ruben Loftus-Cheek in midfield after Dele Alli injured a thigh.
With an average age of 26, England is one of the youngest teams at the World Cup.
“We were never quite sure how far this team could go,” Southgate said. “The age of the players, the improvement in the players, the hunger in the players has been apparent for everybody to see. We’re really proud in the style that we’ve played, with the intelligence that we’ve played, and that we’ve performed under pressure ...”
Croatia made its only semifinal appearance in 1998, losing 2-1 to host France.
Defender Dejan Lovren, a teammate of Henderson on Champions League finalist Liverpool, bristled when asked about a 4-1 loss at Tottenham last
October when England striker Harry Kane scored twice.
“It’s completely irrelevant,” he said. “Why didn’t you ask me how I played well against him? You are just nitpicking my poor performances.”