INTER & CO STADIUM – After the storm clouds finally cleared, so did the fog of the phony war for Thomas Tuchel.
A week out from the World Cup opener against Croatia and Tuchel’s message was as loud as the thunder that rumbled around downtown Orlando, pushing back the kick-off of this leg loosener against Costa Rica. This, with the exception of the unfortunate Noni Madueke, is England’s team to take on the world.
The big winner in that developing scenario? Barcelona new boy Anthony Gordon, who responded immaculately to Marcus Rashford slamming down the gauntlet at the weekend against New Zealand with a statement of intent of his own.
Rashford had been good in the drudgery of the New Zealand game. But Gordon seems to get the attacking combinations that little bit better than the man he’s replacing at the Nou Camp. In the end that’s probably going to give him the edge when the action gets underway in Dallas next week.
Gordon is that strange case of a player who divides opinion among fans but is almost universally loved by managers. For a player who has just joined Barcelona for the thick end of £70m he didn’t always stand out in Premier League action for Newcastle last year.
But strip away the attritional, physical challenge of getting beyond defenders in the domestic league and he does have a tendency to deliver. A top performer in the Champions League, a World Cup where teams tire in the heat and defenders aren’t quite as well drilled feels like a big opportunity for a player Tuchel loves.
He made England’s opening goal with a trademark burst into the box after just six minutes, squaring for Declan Rice to drive past Patrick Mejias. And he finished the contest off with a well-taken penalty before Tuchel took him off with 20 minutes to go. It felt like job done for the forward.
Given their early pressure the floodgates should have been flung open but for this England side, it’s never that simple.
England predicted XI vs Croatia
Pickford; James, Konsa, Stones, O’Reilly; Anderson, Rice; Saka, Bellingham, Gordon; Kane
They had 80 per cent possession in the Orlando heat but are still searching for cutting edge. Harry Kane forced a fine save with a smart header and then England thought they had a penalty on half-time, only for VAR to intervene and judge the challenge on Gordon to be minimal contact.
Madueke inexplicably missed an open goal, rolling expertly past Meijas only to smack against the post and before the end Morgan Rogers got in on the act, side footing wide with only the goalkeeper to beat. They’re the sort of chances England can’t afford to miss when the serious stuff gets underway but generally this was the best England have played since booking their place at the World Cup.
That comes with a health warning, of course, given the brittle nature of the challenge Costa Rica posed. The second of two games in England’s Florida series, this Orlando jaunt came with all the atmosphere of an afternoon at Disneyland.
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No one really knows what a World Cup in the US is going to look like, but I’d suggest they go down a different route from the organisers here, who had deployed two “hypemen” to say things like “Harry Kane has 61 goals in 51 games, you do the math!”
The sizeable visiting England contingent – drawn to Orlando to earn “caps” which ensure tickets for future tournaments – got the tone just about right when they berated one of the gormless MCs as “just a shit Owen Wilson”. Presumably when the proper stuff starts in the States on Friday they’ll assume the crowd has more than a passing acquaintance with the game.
Costa Rica aren’t at the World Cup and this wasn’t their best side. But even so they barely got out of their own half against an England team who looked much closer to the finished article than they had done on Saturday.
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