THAT’S HOW YOU SCORE A PENALTY, BOSS!
PENALTIES , as Gareth Southgate said last night from his own bitter personal experience, are not easy.
But Harry Kane took two in his stride here, ignoring the distractions of those dastardly opponents from Panama to score with breathtaking accuracy. Not just in the same place but with the same venom, power and accuracy.
One imagines that if Roy Race took a penalty at a World Cup for England, that is how he would do it. Whoosh, take that, top corner! Quite brilliant.
Kane is still waiting for a decent chance in open play at this tournament but when an opportunity to score has presented itself, the England captain has proved deadly. Indeed, even when he does not mean it, such was the good fortune that enabled him to join Sir Geoff Hurst and Gary Lineker in scoring a hat-trick for England at a World Cup.
He now sits ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku in pursuit of the Golden Boot but there are records in his sights, too. Only Lineker has scored more England goals at the World Cup — he boasts 10 — but after just 154 minutes of football on the grandest stage of all another five appear to be well within his reach.
No wonder manager Southgate, who missed a penalty for England in the Euro ’96 semi-final, said he would not swap him for any other striker when he reflected on Kane’s contribution here so far.
Kane delivers, not least for this England manager. It is now 13 goals in nine games for Southgate, and 11 in seven as the captain. To suggest the 24-year-old thrives on leadership would be something of an understatement.
Southgate hooked him as soon as he could in the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium. Half-time would have been tempting were it not for the fact that Kane would have almost certainly demanded he be allowed to score more goals when Panama were so defensively inept.
But no sooner had that effort from Ruben Loftus-Cheek taken a deflection off Kane’s heel and Southgate had him off, unharmed and out of danger in preparation for his next appearance.
When exactly that is remains to be seen, but a game against Belgium when qualification for the last 16 has already been secured would certainly seem like a good time to rest him.
Kane being Kane, he will probably want to play. After all, he has made no secret of wanting to emulate Lineker by winning the Golden Boot.
But Southgate has to be sensible here and so does his captain when he is going to be so important for England once the serious business of the knockout stage arrives.
Last night Southgate hinted strongly at widespread changes for the third and final group game, suggesting it was important that players so far unused should get a game. Not just for squad morale but because they might yet be needed as the tournament progresses, making game time important.
So far 17 of England’s 23 players have been used, so one can presume there are at least four others — ignoring the reserve goalkeepers — who will come into the side for the clash in Kaliningrad.
‘ We have some decisions to make because the harmony of the group is important to me,’ said Southgate. ‘There are others who we didn’t get into the game.
‘Some have been a couple of weeks without a match, and we are going to need more people as we get further tournament.’
So if it looks like being a secondstring XI Southgate sends out against Belgium, why risk the captain and principal goalscorer? Why, when this match was played in such punishing heat, not give the Tottenham striker more time to recover?
The game has the potential for being a little unusual anyway, given the apparent desire among the Belgian ranks to finish second in the group.
If members of the Belgian media are well-informed, and they generally seem to be, Roberto Martinez has a couple of reasons for wanting to remain in their current position of second in Group G.
First, they would prefer to avoid into the
a probable quarter- final against brazil or possibly germany.
but they would also prefer to play in Moscow when that is where they are based, and so avoid a trip to rostov.
Of course, there is little to choose between England and belgium right now. Only one yellow card, given that they are equal not just in terms of goal difference but goals scored.
but in the belgium camp there seems to be talk about doing whatever it takes, within the rules, to avoid finishing above England. ‘if we need another booking we always have Fellaini,’ one reporter quipped.
So, again, spare Kane the potential charade and save him for the kind of knockout games in which England often struggle, and give someone else the chance to stake a claim for a place in the side.
it felt significant that Marcus rashford was not used last night, suggesting he was being spared with belgium in mind. England, you assume, will not play to draw or lose.
‘i’ve heard talk of it being better finishing second, but how do you work all that out, really?’ Southgate asked, and he has a point when, remember, England thought they were lucky to end up playing iceland at the last major tournament.
if the game did end as a draw and England received the extra booking needed to tie with belgium in the fair play stakes, it would then go to drawing lots.
according to FiFa’s website, if a draw is needed, ‘it would take place shortly after the respective matches in the stadium media centre of one of the FiFa World Cup stadiums in Moscow. The draw would be open to accredited media and streamed live’.
it might also be the one time FiFa’s website has more viewers than a royal wedding but at least Kane is not part of that particular audience this time.
When England lasted only six days at the 2014 World Cup, Kane was watching on television.
in six days here he has scored five goals, propelling England into the next round with a game to spare. in 2018 he is the star of the show.