Put more flags. Dig out the George Cross clown hat. Be prepared to toss the remainder of your plastic beer glass into the air. After another thrilling moment of drama in Dortmund, England’s football players will take part in the Euro 2024 final in Berlin this Sunday.
Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins was the hero at the end as he made his first appearance in the Championship and came on as a late substitute for Harry Kane in a 1-1 draw flat. England and the Netherlands were already staring grimly at the prospect of extra time when Watkins received a pass from Southgate’s substitute Cole Palmer and he turned quickly, without looking up, just to put the ball away. Driven low into the far corner.
The BVB Arena is another huge, gangly industrial metal football hangar in the Rhineland. At that moment the ground exploded and a huge noise rushed down from England’s end, leaving England’s empty bench jumping and frolicking around the pitch.
England have been ridiculed, questioned and insulted by influential broadcasters and will now reach their second successive World Cup final. Not only did they win late, but they played well and put together their best performance of the summer so far.
From the get-go, the entire event felt big, epic, retro, and always a little emotionally out of control. Dortmund was packed with orange shirts all afternoon, with broken glass crackling underfoot and the winding shopping streets filled with English songs, English wails, drones and chants. Don’t take me home. Phil Foden’s On Fire and the more recent addition to the canon, Stop the Boats Nigel Farage, are echoing around Düsseldorf main station.
For a while, the rain fell hard and relentless, soaking the dark green turf and creeping in through the holes in the corrugated roof, cooling the humid air.
Dutch fans turned Dortmund’s massive yellow wall into a tumbling orange mass. England is at the other end, with much of the center decked out in the usual ornate flags, a familiar journey through the country from Bristol to Carlisle to Bermondsey.
Even though England have reached the final stages, the talk of this World Cup is still about the gap. Gaps in the team. The gap between the head coach, the fans, and the media. But there was a glimmer of light in this game. For half an hour of the first half, England’s young midfielders played like princelings.
England once again fielded a comfortable armchair formation, with Southgate safety trussing the back three and the composed Mark Gay returning from suspension. They looked more comfortable with the extra defensive body and the box in white shirts was tighter. Southgateism is control and security, the footballing equivalent of brooding and a reassuring frown.
England were brilliant for seven minutes. Then suddenly the Netherlands scored on a quick turnover. As the Dutch players ran towards the orange ziggurats, the noise came from the other end, like a slingshot, a huge rolling noise.
in spite of. Anyway, England played pretty well. They look vibrant, fresh, and fearless. On top of that, they have a coherent set of attacks, fluid movements, running into difficult spaces, passing angles, and finishing. With 16 minutes remaining, an intricate circling run from Bukayo Saka and a reckless challenge from Denzel Dumfries saw Kane nearly knock his ankle away as he attempted to shoot. , and finally they got a penalty kick. Kane lands a kick. 1-1. The place is absolutely thrilling, the noise swirls around the pitch and the players cling to it.
Newsletter Promotion Post
Dutch coach Ronald Koeman plopped down in his chair, opened his jaw, and did something that changed the game. Injured striker Memphis Depay was replaced by midfielder Joey Wellman to bolster the Netherlands, and it was England who created the overload. The tension shifted. The Dutch team fought back and maintained the 1-1 score until halftime. That’s what Southgate often fails to do, the manager’s hands reaching out onto the pitch, tugging at parts, fixing them, tightening them, changing the flow.
The sky across the city has turned a lovely Martian red, except for the giant yellow spaceship doors fixed to the roof of the main stand. For a while, Foden, Kobe Minu and Saka had the ball on the ropes, just moving quickly and making things happen. This is what this thing should look like. At one point, Manu spotted Foden dragging backwards before his curling ball almost crawled into the bottom corner. They can play, these boys. It was the best, sunniest, freest half hour they had ever spent in Germany.
Halftime seemed to take the life out of the game. Southgate will be blamed because Southgate must be blamed. But the Netherlands matched England defensively like a collective hug in orange shirts. England moved more cautiously, staying in their own lane. The game became an exercise in feints and misdirection, less a chess match than a very cautious and rather hypnotic one.
Southgate appeared on his touchline with a concerned attitude. Now long gone, the vest can only be glimpsed on a vintage cardboard cutout waved around the town’s pubs by England supporters like a souvenir. At this European Cup, Southgate wore a charity professional/am golf weekend fashion, a plaid woven cream polo shirt and black tight slacks. He stood up and frowned. Passivity has always been a strength, a virtue, an active and thoughtful approach to England. They’ve been winning slowly. Is this the only way? Apparently so. England were always going to attack deep, but now they were heading towards Berlin.
