[ad_1]
SAMARA, Russian-English race during this World Cup was a prime boon. What is strangely particular for the same reason as this is appropriate: it is the country that first kicked around the ball and created the sport that is played here.
But the last 50 years of English football have been filled with the agony that England had to reinvent itself because it could not reinvent the sport. And already this tournament has been filled with a wave of new starts: The first time he's scored six goals in a World Cup match, the first time he's progressed to the Cup in the World on penalties, and even his first quarterfinal in 12 The score that gave England the advantage on Saturday en route to its first place in the semifinals of the World Cup since 1990 is another first: a goal of a player who has never been
The head of Harry Maguire, later supplemented by another Dele Alli score, gave England a win 2-0 in quarter-final against Sweden. Now, improbably, England is only two victories from its first world cup since 1966. Its fans, who have revived a 22-year-old song about the team at half sarcastic during this race, suddenly begin to believe that his message no longer. Throughout the second half, Samara Arena fans sang the chorus of the song: "He's coming home, football is coming home."
There are many key points in the England's win that explain how he went one step further to bring him home. Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made a key save in the second half. Shortly after, Pickford makes another acrobatic stop. Then he withdrew another.
But the moment that illuminates almost everything about the race of England came in the 30th minute of Maguire's noodle. It was strange. It was unexpected. And he captured the essence of how this English part is different from its predecessors.
Maguire, 25, played only nine times for the national team. He had never scored before for his country, which was not really weird because he was a defender and did not have much international experience. But that 's also why, in a team with superstar striker Harry Kane, no one would have expected Maguire to score in this quarter – final.
Then a bullet came from Ashley Young, and Maguire was there to direct it and Sweden in a deficit he could not escape.
It was a telling tale because England armed what might have been considered her greatest weakness and turned her into a motor of a charmed race. The England manager, Gareth Southgate, notes that his team arrived in Russia as the most inexperienced team of the tournament
because his team is filled with Maguires, young and inexperienced, but overflowing with talent. Alli, whose goal came in the 59th minute, is even younger at 22. He had scored only twice for England.
There was another way that Maguire's purpose was irrefutably and strangely English. After so many tournaments where these games were a source of national embarrbadment in England, no team has dominated the staging of this World Cup like England. Young's center at the surface came on a corner kick. England has now scored more free kicks and corners than in the previous three World Cups.
For a moment, all this – the exciting young players, their tactical strength and even something as crazy as moving forward to this quarter-finals by beating Colombia on shots on goal, that seemed to be a dream infused with vodka. It was incredible.
But while England continues to bet on these forces, game after game, the idea that England is bringing it home is starting to look like something else. It's absolutely credible.
Write to Andrew Beaton at [email protected]
