GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany — England has had some near misses over the years, some wide-open opportunities to solve its own greatest soccer problem – the fact that the men’s national team hasn’t won a trophy since 1966.
If it doesn’t connect on this one, the chance to win Euro 2024 over the next couple of weeks, it will be the most egregious act of wastefulness out of them all.
Here it is, England. Here is what you wanted, what you asked for. All that ruminating over bad luck, bad draws, a lack of this or that in terms of squad talent, none of it applies now.
All that is, there is a juicy bunch of reasons why England can win the European Championship for the first time in its history and ensure that the World Cup title from 58 years ago finally has some company.
Jude Bellingham is one of the reasons. Great teamwork and squad depth are important factors in winning a major tournament, but my goodness having a transcendent superstar helps mightily, doesn’t it?
Argentina won the last World Cup and France nearly won it because of several things, by far the most important of which was that one had Lionel Messi and the other had Kylian Mbappé.
Mbappé was the pivotal figure in France’s 2018 win. Portugal won the Euros in 2016 — nice job, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Special players do special things. Bellingham hasn’t had a great tournament and Gareth Southgate’s England has been severely disjointed, but the two differences that have mattered have both belonged to the Real Madrid star, who only turned 21 on Saturday.
If not for him, England’s only win of the group stage against Serbia would have been yet another drab draw. Without him, and that outrageous bicycle kick with a couple of ticks on the clock, Slovakia would have spent Sunday night, Monday morning, and probably most of the next few days having the party of all parties.
That’s one part of what greatness looks like. It’s not always dominance upon dominance. Bellingham looked like his favoritism for the Ballon d’Or award given to the world’s best player might be in some jeopardy if England continued to flounder.
It just got another jolt towards coming into reality. Funnily enough, voters tend to like iconic moments and magnificently-timed dramatics when they put pencil to ballot.
In its run to the last Euros final, and in three straight tournament quarterfinals between 2002 and 2006, and in World Cup challenges in 1986 and 1990, Engand could never make a serious claim to have the world’s best player. It mattered then and it matters now. Southgate has some tactical thoughts to process, but more than anything, he needs to make the talent at his disposal count to its fullest flexibility.
Another reason opportunity knocks is that England has had some fortune. It could have been out, and it’s still kicking. Did they deserve to be level after 90 minutes? On possession, absolutely. On creativity, forwards intention, cohesiveness and overall threat, hmm, the jury’s out.
More reasons? How about that it’s rare for a team at a competition of this gravitas to have played this poorly in general, yet be sitting pretty in the last eight and with some days to ponder things.
Perhaps the most significant of all is that it has a draw from the heavens. As Spain gets ready to meet Germany in a game worthy of being a final and before long France v. Portugal may be served up if they beat Belgium and Slovenia respectively, Southgate’s squad has Switzerland up next.
The Swiss are definitely good and did well to outshine a poor Italy, but they’d hardly qualify as a nightmare opponent at this juncture, especially considering what is on the other side of the bracket.
Another victory for England would lead to a semifinal against one of these four teams: Austria, Turkey, the Netherlands or Romania.
“We haven’t come to get to a quarter-final,” Southgate told reporters. “We will build on the spirit shown and the belief. Equally we’re not naïve, we are going to play a team who have looked fantastic for a while.
“The level of our game is going to have to be higher. We’re building. We have loads of problems we’ve had to solve this tournament.”
Some of those dilemmas have melted away. Others remain. But what also lingers is the chance of a lifetime for the England players, the opportunity of Southgate’s career, and the potential, at long, long last, for this to be the moment.
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