ARLINGTON, Texas — At halftime, moments after England had conceded the Croatia equaliser, Thomas Tuchel sat down with his players in the changing room.
He waited for the collective adrenaline to calm a touch, and then reminded them of the team they want to be. “I wanted them to do it our way, be brave, courageous, intense and on the front foot and just go for it,” Tuchel said. “Just be active. I encouraged them with words which were short and calm. That was the main message to encourage them and tell them that we trusted them.”
Meet Bazball v.2 — the Thomas Tuchel version. The PR around “Bazball,” the philosophy guiding England men’s cricket team, hasn’t been great recently. The Ashes were a disaster; the philosophy of playing without thinking left England brainless. Vibe-ing a match and ethos drowned the team in a puddle of their own ineptitude.
On Wednesday afternoon, in the airconditioned stadium protected from the brutal Dallas heat, we saw Tuchel’s England blueprint, football’s newly-advanced adaptation of Bazball focused on attack and freedom, but a philosophy where players think to create organised chaos. Kane said pre-match he wanted to be a captain who freed his teammates’ minds, but this isn’t reckless abandon. When Elliot Anderson pings a perfect 40-yard ball down the line, first-time on the turn, to put Jude Bellingham away, it’s instinctive football, but all within Tuchel’s prescribed framework. Meet One-Tuch Ball — or something far better.
England needed their cage rattling at halftime with the game locked at 2-2. For some teams, a rollocking at this stage can have a detrimental effect on a philosophy anchored on trusting instinct. It can halt momentum or interrupt freedom of thought. Not England, though. It galvanised them and left Croatia waiting until the final throes of the match to trouble England again.
“The manager gave a speech [at half-time],” Kane said. “He just said: ‘If we lose, we lose, we lose in our way.'” Kane was integral to every shift of England’s momentum. And by the 94th minute, of course, it was Kane who used his abdomen to stop a final Croatian effort.
About five minutes after Kane had taken that close-range shot from Josko Gvardiol square to the stomach, he was pushed forward by his teammates to stand in front of the England fans at the south-west end of the vast stadium in Arlington. He’d just been named Player of the Match too, something else to sit alongside his brace of World Cup goals on the day he equalled David Beckham’s record of 115 caps. The version of “Three Lions” had finished, and it was “Wonderwall” which greeted him. It was Kane’s stage, but it was equally Tuchel’s.
In England’s 4-2 win over Croatia, we saw the outlook for what they hope will end their 60-year wait for a major men’s competition triumph: it consists of a boxed midfield, set pieces, utilising the completed version of Kane, plonking the defence on halfway line, stretching the pitch as wide as possible, and then using the bench in the second half to inject another drop of momentum. England’s fourth came thanks to two of the substitutes, with Bukayo Saka teeing up Marcus Rashford .
England aim to play with controlled aggression, but Tuchel didn’t like what he saw in the first half. It was all a little clunky. England looked effective going forward when things clicked, but defensively vulnerable as they conceded twice. It was Kane pulling them forward. First, his penalty — drawn by Noni Madueke thanks to a Luka Modric foul — was slotted home at the second ask. Then came his second in the 42nd minute, a brilliant header having been bizarrely left unmarked off a Rice corner. But the defensive frailties at the other end led Croatia to unpick them twice. First, through a well-judged effort from the edge of the box from Martin Baturina , and then a wonderful move where England’s defence was split open by a long ball over the top, leaving Ivan Perisic to nod to Peter Musa, who finished well.
Tuchel got into them at half-time, told them this wasn’t what he wanted to see or what was expected from them. They’d lost duels, they resorted to a protectionist low block and played backwards far too often. So for the second half, England’s defence moved onto the halfway line, and Rice found himself more on the ball. That gave England a more effective platform to build from, with Madueke and Gordon continuing to fix the fullbacks; attack being the best form of defence and all that.
From there, England created a stack more chances, with Anderson unleashing Bellingham, who made it 3-2 with a well-taken effort soon after the break, so soon that several fans missed it as they retook their seats. England should have had more, but Dominik Livakovic held out further efforts on his goal with a string of remarkable reflex saves after Rice’s set pieces caused further carnage. And then Rashford eventually made it four.
Morgan Rogers all lining up after the second drinks interlude. It was a sign of attacking intent but also calculated risk, leaving Reece James as their second man in midfield to protect Rice, who felt some discomfort.”Without the ball, we went a bit more aggressive. In the second half, we thought we’d just go for it,” Kane said. “The intensity we went at, we have to do that more this tournament.”So that’s the philosophy England hope will take them through to July 19 and New Jersey. Play as they did in the first half, and they won’t be there. But find a way to repeat their second-half performance and shore up some defensive lapses (maybe it’s time for Marc Guéhi against Ghana ?), and they could make a deep run.What we saw from England in the second 45 was an outlook focused on playing to their strengths, with a philosophy anchored on aggression, married with freedom of the mind. But it’s freedom controlled within the framework Tuchel provides.
