That’s a keeper: Kane nets hat trick
England striker Harry Kane, right, held on to the game ball after scoring a hat trick in his team’s 6-1 win over Panama on Sunday. Those goals made Kane the third Englishman after Geoff Hurst and Gary Lineker to score a hat trick in a Cup match. “One to be proud of,” Kane said. “Not many players get to score a hat trick in a World Cup.” With the win, England clinched a spot in the knockout stage.
NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia — With two penalties in the first half and an accidental deflection in the second, Harry Kane moved ahead of David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo and put England into the round of 16 at the World Cup.
Kane scored half of England’s goals Sunday in a 6-1 rout of Panama, the national team’s largest-ever margin of victory in the tournament.
“The third one is probably one of the luckiest ones of my career,” said Kane, who took the game ball to the locker room. “Sometimes you go through spells where you are scoring and sometimes it doesn’t fall for you.
“Not many players get to score a hat trick in a World Cup.”
Kane has scored a tournament-leading five goals at the World Cup in Russia, one more than Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku. He also has 18 for England’s national team, one more than Beckham.
Not since the 4-2 victory over Germany in the 1966 final has England scored as many goals at the World Cup.
The team’s display in the sweltering heat of Nizhny Novgorod showed just how far England has been transformed in the four years since an older, more experienced squad couldn’t even manage a win when it exited the World Cup in the group stage.
In 2014, England complained
about the heat in Brazil — particularly the humidity of the Amazonian jungle in the team’s opening loss to Italy.
Kane scored two in the opening 2-1 victory over Tunisia, including a header in injury time.
“The other day we had to go right to the wire and show qualities that were going to be extremely important,” England coach Gareth Southgate said. “The only downside was the goal at the end because we talked at halftime about the importance of controlling the group with our goal difference. We missed out on that opportunity but it would be harsh to criticize the players after a day like that, in the heat as well, so we must enjoy the win.”
Now England is sure of a spot in the round of 16 with a game to spare in Group G. Panama, which offered little resistance, will leave its first World Cup early after it was eliminated from contention for a secondround berth.
Sterner tests await England, starting with the Thursday’s game against Belgium. England and Belgium are tied on points and goal difference and will play for first place in the group.
England showed it wasn’t only reliant on Kane, who couldn’t find the net at the 2016 European Championship. John Stones headed in two goals and Jesse Lingard curled in another.
The egos who dominated in England’s underperforming Golden Generation in the first decade of century have gone. The togetherness in the squad — the second-youngest in Russia — becomes clear in the goal celebrations.
Where past England teams might have wilted in warm temperatures, this one pressed with high-tempo intensity.
England was merciless. At 5-0, the job was complete by halftime.
“I said ‘Look, I am starting to feel scared. We can’t actually try to equalize. We can’t even reduce this distance. All we can do is try to stop England so they can’t score more goals,’ ” Panama coach Hernan Gomez said. “We were feeling rather frightened.”
Second half substitute Felipe Baloy, 37, slid to meet Ricardo Avila’s free kick and score Panama’s historic first World Cup goal in the 78th minute. He became the fourth oldest to score in a World Cup.