England go from the sublime to the mundane
No rest for the timid.
The hope that England could qualify for the round of 16, win the group with a game to spare, and allow players a breather before the knock-out round commenced, evaporated north of Doha last night with a performance as lame as Monday’s win over Iran was boldly impressive.
Here, England reverted to this year’s type. They were slow, cautious and made to look ordinary but a United States team that was bright and energised but, again, failed to win.
Gregg Berhalter’s team had the best chances and the best of the game but have scored just once in two matches and will go out if they fail to beat Iran next week.
England remain in charge of the group but are vulnerable to defeat in a final match with Wales in which it is feared form could go out of the window, trumped by passion and emotion.
Lose and, if the other game has a winner, England are out. It would still count as a huge shock – Wales have been poor in this tournament so far – but the confidence that followed England’s opener drained from those invested in Gareth Southgate’s team as it laboured to gain a foothold in this match.
Bright starts in each half soon evaporated and when Southgate made his first changes after 69 minutes, one of them was to introduce Jordan Henderson for Jude Bellingham in the heart of midfield.
The young man, a star of the group opener, was labouring here and his coach clearly wanted the Liverpool captain’s experience to make sure the damage was limited to two points dropped, not three.
Jack Grealish came on for Raheem Sterling and immediately looked livelier on the flank, but there is no escaping this was a dreadfully below par performance, a slap in the face after the promise of game one.
With the possible exception of Harry Maguire and John Stones – Maguire has now repelled with more headers than any player in the tournament – nobody looked entirely comfortable.
Even goalkeeper Jordan Pickford flapped at a second-half corner from Christian Pulisic.
Southgate will see silver linings, as managers do, and one was certainly the steadfast displays of the centre-backs, who prevented too many fears that England would concede. Yet was this the work of potential champions, given what we have seen of France, Spain and Brazil. No, it was not. It was a sobering experience, and the idea that England could cost into the last 16, rested, fresh and buoyant, a fanciful one.
The modern United States may still be the underdogs against the best sides in Europe but that understates their abilities. They’re awkward. Hard running, high pressing, no little danger. The days when the best American players could only get a game at Coventry, or Luton, have long since passed. These days, they are as likely to play in the Champions League with Chelsea, or Borussia Dortmund, and last night it showed. England started well, dominated the early exchanges, but after 15 minutes began to lose the midfield and didn’t truly get it back for the rest of the half.