It’s all down to the middle management
COLLY
TUESDAY’S game between England and Colombia will be a test of two great strikers in Harry Kane and Radamel Falcao.
But perhaps even more crucially, it will be a test of the supply lines behind them.
The midfield area is where this last-16 fixture will be won and lost.
And England received a major boost yesterday with the news that Colombia’s outstanding player James Rodriguez is set to miss out because of his calf injury.
That will place even more responsibility on Juan Cuadrado, while Dele Alli – if he is fit – Raheem Sterling and Jesse Lingard are the young men on whose shoulders the creative responsibility for England will fall.
Before a scan revealed the extent of his injury, I feared that Rodriguez had the potential to bring the best out of Falcao, even more so than Alli, Sterling or Lingard with Kane.
I know England scored goals against Tunisia and Panama – and plenty of them in that second game – but my worry is that we didn’t really get in behind the lines enough.
And that is going to be even more difficult now, so my hope is that England’s playmakers rise to the occasion.
Similarities
I know there are some who want Rodriguez to play, those who want to see the best players in the world going head to head... and to see ours coming out on top.
Well, I’m not one of them. I am glad Rodriguez is almost certain to be missing and hope Falcao is struck down by a 24-hour virus because that will give us more of a chance.
There are plenty of similarities between Falcao and Kane.
Neither, it’s fair to say, fashion too many goals of their own, but instead rely heavily on being fed by those alongside or behind them. On a trip to Colombia before the World Cup, I spoke to a number of coaches and journalists who have known Falcao throughout his career.
What came across was how much he sounded like the England skipper. He is very popular, down to earth, there’s no scandal, no issues or concerns and he’s considered one of those guys you can always rely on.
The suspicion was that his time with Manchester United was just a bad move at a bad time given the injury he had suffered.
It would be easy for English fans to write him off after his time at Old Trafford and with Chelsea.
And easy as well for them to decry some of Colombia’s other big names.
Arsenal’s David Ospina is a No.2 goalkeeper, Cuadrado couldn’t cut it with Chelsea and Tottenham’s Davinson Sanchez is still a bit raw.
Togetherness
That’s a bit naive, though, because they are part of a team that has been together longer than this England one.
And that sort of experience and togetherness counts for plenty at a major tournament.
The South American qualification group is arguably the toughest of the lot in terms of size and pressure and they have been tested in the fires of Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil.
England have a good team, too, but it’s not one tested in France, Germany and Spain when it really mattered.
Against average opposition, Gareth Southgate’s men have looked really good, but now we will see if they have got what it takes to step up to the plate against the tougher teams.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Colombia will win the tournament. But they could well be the team the eventual winners look back on and say, ‘Boy, they pushed us hard over 90 minutes, gave us a real scare’.
The big question is now is whether or not that team will be ours.