The Great Escapism is over but we must not throw this real progress into the fire
The gains are there to be counted and everything put in place has legs beyond this campaign
The worst outcome now would be for England’s campaign in Russia to be tossed on the fire with all the others. Blessings should be counted, when the angst wears off.
Save us from the kind of revisionism that ignores hard facts. One is that England progressed from a group-stage exit in 2014 to a semi-final defeat in extra-time four years later. No country on earth would call that anything other than improvement. England lasted six days in Brazil. Here they survived deep into extra-time of a last-four game, succumbing to the latest goal they have conceded in World Cup competition – 108min 03sec, the time on the clock when Mario Mandzukic plunged the dagger.
Then you turn to the culture change: to possession football (which fell apart, admittedly, after half-time), to boldness and togetherness, laced with modesty and a refusal to be weighed down by the past. History is still there, lurking in the shadows. England have lost four of their five semifinals in tournaments, reaching only one final since they joined the World Cup party in 1950. So this story runs from 1950 to 2018, not from 1966, as people often say. But to hold this against Gareth Southgate and his young squad would be cruel and destructive. The gains are there to be counted.
“Did we expect to be in this position? I don’t think any one of us realistically did,” Southgate said of the march to Moscow. “But you want to be able to take those opportunities in life.”
England were not able to, and the players will feel worse about that than any England fan. Nobody is expecting a heroes’ homecoming – but Southgate’s side will need to feel that the country has not turned on them after sending them so much love to their base north of St Petersburg.
Southgate called them “a group of players who’ve really advanced”, and said: “They have broken through a number of barriers over the last few weeks.” All true, but there is still much work to do on keeping the ball under pressure in the biggest knockout games and scoring from open play.
The Great Escapism of the last four weeks turned torrid here, as England returned to suffering their way through matches. Southgate’s team were dragged into a version of the Italia 90 semifinal. Nostalgia returned as stressful rolling news.
England’s biggest match for 28 years was proceeding like a dream until the second-half, when Croatia recovered from being a goal down and England tried to relieve the pressure by hitting long balls to Marcus Rashford, who replaced Raheem Sterling. Some default settings persist. When England needed to keep the ball in the face of intense Croatian attacks, they went aerial, and lost control of events.
Everything they have put in place has legs beyond Russia – to the 2020 European Championship and Qatar World Cup. The deal was already signed before the Croatia game: team and fans are united, yes?
Declarations of intent have a special beauty this late in a tournament, and Kieran Trippier’s early free-kick seemed designed to show Croatia that England meant business. The delivery
exuded confidence, in the taker and the team. Bang! Four minutes in, and our screens over here are glowing with images of beer flying and people pogoing in Hyde Park. Back in England the mood has seemed uniformly ecstatic, as if winning World Cup games were the highest form of pleasure.
The result aside, nobody froze, no one failed to “take responsibility” (the crime against Iceland in Nice) and everyone seemed hell-bent on returning to the Luzhniki for Sunday’s climax. As Dele Alli says: “It’s in your own hands, the responsibility.”
Often England managers have watched teams atomise into 11 parts, with players believing some higher power is responsible when things start going badly. Anyone but them, in other words. In those moments, England sides have become passengers to fate. There would be a powerlessness about them. There was no lack of effort this time, only of control.
As for England’s ninth set-piece goal in 12, Southgate had told us on Friday: “Germany, in five of their seven games when they won it in 2014, scored the first goal in each of them from set pieces. If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us.”
This was not life or death, of course, but it was a glorious escape from both, in a city where the frictions of the world lurk beneath the surface.
A few miles from this ground sit the great offices of the Russian state, where a diplomatic impasse with the UK is being managed. Along the river, at the Luzhniki bend, England, without royals and dignitaries, had outstayed Russia at their own World Cup and were bidding for a place in Sunday’s final a short drive from Vladimir Putin’s seat of power.
Tunisia stretched England to 90 minutes, and Colombia hauled them to extra-time and penalties. But Croatia’s attacking play – especially wide, through Ivan Perisic, who was superb – brought another level of stress. The quarter-final route through Sweden was a gentle one, almost routine; and while France and Belgium duked it out in the tougher half of the draw, England fell in the end to Croatia’s forceful attacking.
The feeling of the last four weeks can renew itself – if people allow it to. Southgate has made his point. As he said at the Luzhniki when Wednesday had turned into Thursday: “Experiences with England can be positive.”