A TEAM WITH A DREAM
Kane eyes Golden Boot but says side matters more than his personal glory
HARRY KANE is on course for his own piece of World Cup history – but insists the team will always come before personal glory.
The England skipper’s six goals put him top of the contenders for the tournament’s Golden Boot and only Brazil legend Ronaldo has scored more at a World Cup since 1974.
And while Kane says the right things, he also knows his scoring form holds the key to England’s success. He said: “It’s been a great campaign so far.
“The job is to help the team as much as possible, with and without the ball, scoring goals or getting assists.
“Hopefully it can continue and I carry on scoring and we go far. That would be amazing, but the focus is on helping the team.”
England fans are starting to believe and Kane added: “A lot of fans have dreams. Players have dreams. They can be a dreamer.
“We definitely have a hunger because of the other night. When you go through a battle like that, it gives you so much energy and belief to go and do it again. We’re hungry for more.”
England will need Kane at his best today against a mean Swedish defence marshalled by Manchester United’s Victor Lindelof (right).
They do not score many goals, do not have many stars and their success is built on a tight back line.
Kane is the first player since Tommy Lawton in 1939 to score in six consecutive appearances for England and another step towards matching record-holder George Camsell’s nine in a row could have a huge impact. But Kane also says everyone needs to be prepared for another 120 minutes of tension. England have won just two of their last 15 meetings against the Swedes and having banished two ghosts against Colombia with penalties
and winning a knock-out game, they must now put another hoodoo to bed.
He said: “They are together and stick together on the pitch. We know it’ll be a very tough game and we have to be fully focused.
“Their record speaks for itself. A great tournament so far, strong in all parts of their game, setpieces as well. We have to focus on ourselves and what we have to do to break them down.
“If it goes to extra-time and penalties, we’ll be ready for that. We’re ready to do whatever it takes. Beating Colombia was massive for us. Obviously we’ve had so much heartache as a country in knock-out games and penalty shoot-outs.
“For our inexperienced, young team, to overcome that… it was a tough night.
“To come through that and fight to the end, getting through on the shoot-out, was massive. It’ll give us huge belief. We’ll be stronger for it.
“We know this game could be the same, going all the way to penalties, but we have that in the bank now – we know we can come through the other side.”
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