England 1-0 New Zealand (Kane 45+3)
It’s football but not as we know it.
When England meandered over to the touchline after 23 minutes of this glorified training session, you soon realised why this World Cup is going to be so different any that has gone before.
The drinks break is nothing of the sort, really. It’s actually a revolution in the way the game is played – a three-minute interval in which managers can change the narrative and momentum can be arrested. News flash – most people seemed to hate it. Count me in that column.
I get it: it’s hot. The players obviously need to take on water. But the way it is being administered isn’t just a quick sip on the sidelines, it’s introducing four quarters by stealth and my early call is that it will be 2026’s equivalent of 2010’s hated vuvuzela.
In this friendly it didn’t seem especially out of place. There was so little competitive edge that you could barely notice the change in rhythm. But imagine it’s the semi-final in Atlanta on 15 July and England have the edge in a titanic tussle with Argentina – only for the officials to give the world champions respite on 68 minutes so Lionel Messi and company can have a few glugs of their branded water bottles.
Tuchel’s tactical time outs
As aesthetically jarring as the drinks break is, it feels as if mastering this sort of stuff is going to be important. Having a decent XI is still going to matter and England have that, even if few showed much in a narrow win over New Zealand, but World Cups are often decided on who wins the big moments.
Perhaps it will help England that they have Thomas Tuchel on the sidelines, because he has always been elite at game management. The right words, a smart tweak – these are the sort of things that persuaded the Football Association to hire him to move England on from the Gareth Southgate era.
Elsewhere? Tuchel will be happy enough. He said afterwards that the second half gave him more pleasure than the first and there was certainly a zip about Anthony Gordon, now of Barcelona, and the energetic Elliot Anderson. Many would have taken Harry Maguire over Dan Burn but the Newcastle man clipped a post with a header and generally looked accomplished. England paced themselves quite nicely and seemed happy enough in the heat.
Only one player made a real impression
Morgan Rogers was involved in the “A” side of this one, Jude Bellingham apparently on the “B” side who came on later. Yet the Real Madrid man showed glimpses of the sort of drive which will set England apart in their American adventure.
There wasn’t much else to glean from a game played with as much intensity as the average Soccer Aid contest.
England won, Harry Kane led from the front and 22 players got a run out in the Tampa heat. There was a bit more sizzle in the second half but the paucity of the opposition, officially the worst team to be playing at the World Cup, means little was really learned.
Read more
- Daniel Storey: Eight outrageous ways fans are being ripped off at the World Cup
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Except, maybe, that Tuchel should try and sneak Rio Ngumoha on the plane when England jet into their World Cup training base in Kansas next week.
Ngumoha ended the season as Liverpool’s breakout star and looked electric among a collection of low wattage performances. If the idea in America is to have players in reserve who can stretch wilting defences, the 17-year-old might well have been worth a call.
Tuchel decided it was too early for him this summer but an early prediction: by Euro 2028 he will be indispensible to this England side.
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