Siegermentalität
That was quite exciting wasn’t it. Croatia as per gave us a run for our money and it was a very good game.
1st half England were convincing going forward and unconvincing at the back. 2nd half made me realize how many good players we have at our disposal. The trick will be if the German can find a way to take us from plucky losers to an ingrained belief that victory is achievable.
Siegermentalität the Germans call it.
Kane was peerless, it took real balls to step up and fire that second penalty into the same corner. Bellingham was wonderful 2nd half, Anderson impressive and the game changers were all good.
Guehi has to start against Ghana, Stones was jittery, and the jitters were passed onto Reilly, James, Konsa and Pickford.
Not sure what Tuchel said at half-time, ‘a speech’ Kane called it. It must have been good because the 2nd half was a swashbuckling England performance rarely seen.
I wouldn’t mind the Croat keeper down at The Valley, he saved them time and again during a 15 minute spell in the 2nd half when we swarmed all over them and should have put the result out of sight.
4-2, it’s a good start, but plenty of lessons to be learned.
I’ve been to that Dallas stadium, it’s really in Arlington, but it’s a cavernous huge arena that holds the noise in, and it was lovely to see videos of the English players and fans bonding after the game to Wonderwall.
Of course it is air-conditioned and the temperature set to 22 degrees made even more of a mockery of the hydration breaks. The Americans finally have their wish to make soccer a game of 4 quarters to cram in as many adverts as possible.
Nevertheless I have watched a lot of the games so far, and today’s England one may have been the best, but it’s been enjoyable other than the annoying four quarters, and for the most part stadiums look pretty full.
I thought that we were always going to be in trouble with that centre back pairing. However, it was one of the most exciting games that I have seen for a long time. We should have scored at least six.
I am not sure that the tactics of our keeper feeding the ball out to defenders in our final sixth of the pitch is one that we should adopt down The Valley. Can you imagine the mayhem?
The first half defence was a shambles, constantly passing the ball through our own penalty area, giving Pickford all sorts of problems.
Fortunately the second half was much improved and we deserved the win. The margin would have been greater but for the Croation keeper.
Why do we keep playing Tippy, Tappy football as in first half, and Pickford playing tiddlywinks with a throw that goes a couple of inches tohis defenders who tipy tappy it back again. HOOF it up the pitch where it matters. Second Half was much better playing attacking football and taking real chances that paid off. Ditch the Tippy tappy and we could go far.
I think that if you get it right you are pulling the opposition into your half of the pitch and open up the attack. You’ve just got to get it right.
A couple of times it actually worked well, despite the first half jitters which you can almost forgive in the nerves of a first game in the World Cup.
To me, Stones looked most culpable and needed to settle.