Томас Тухелийн удирдсан Английн шигшээ Мексикийг 3:2 харьцаагаар буулган авч, шөвгийн наймд шалгарсан нь Америкийн үзэгчдийн дунд дээд амжилт тогтоосон үзэгчтэй тоглолт боллоо.
Мексиктэй хийсэн тоглолтын 40 гаруй минутад Жарелл Куанса улаан хуудас авснаар Англи хүн дутуу тоглосон ч багийнхан тэсвэр тэвчээр гарган ялалтаа хадгалж үлдлээ. Энэхүү ялалт нь Английн хувьд 1966 оноос хойшхи хамгийн чухал амжилтын нэгд тооцогдож байна. Хаалгач Жордан Пикфордын чухал хаалтууд болон Дэн Бёрны хамгаалалтын ажиллагаа нь багийн эв нэгдлийг харуулсан бол туслах дасгалжуулагч Энтони Барригийн тактикийн өөрчлөлтүүд тоглолтын эргэлтийн цэг болсон юм.
Томас Тухель бол Английн шигшээг удирдаж буй гурав дахь гадаад дасгалжуулагч бөгөөд тэрээр багийн довтолгооныг Харри Кэйн, Жүүд Беллингхэм нарын хоршлоор хүчирхэгжүүлж чаджээ. Кэйн энэ удаагийн тэмцээнд гоол оруулахын зэрэгцээ багийнхаа ялалтыг авчрах шийдвэрлэх үйлдлүүдийг хийж байгаа бол Эллиот Андерсоны дунд шугаман дахь эрч хүчтэй тоглолт багт ихээхэн нөлөө үзүүлж байна.
Англичууд одоо шөвгийн наймд Эрлинг Хааландын Норвегитой хүч үзэхээр зэхэж байна. Хэрэв тэд ялбал хагас шигшээд Лионель Мессигийн Аргентин, эсвэл финалд Килиан Мбаппегийн Франц, Испанитай учраа таарах магадлалтай. 60 жилийн дараах дэлхийн аварга цолыг хүртэхийн төлөөх Английн энэ удаагийн боломжийг мэргэжилтнүүд хамгийн өндөр хэмээн дүгнэж байна.
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More than 21 million English-speaking Americans watched Thomas Tuchel’s England team beat Mexico 3-2 in the World Cup’s round of 16 last Sunday. It was the largest English-language World Cup broadcast in U.S. history that did not feature the USMNT.
As the 48-team field which arrived at this World Cup shrinks, England has emerged as a favorite with American audiences.
TFrom post-match renditions of Oasis’ Wonderwall to the passion displayed after that win at the Estadio Azteca, England has captured the attention of many — unless you happen to support their bitter rival, Scotland.
So, The Athletic has compiled a beginner’s guide to this England team carrying the hopes and anxieties of a nation which thoroughly believes ‘football’s coming home’.
Why did the Mexico game mean so much?
It was a win to secure England’s third consecutive men’s World Cup quarterfinal, but the victory felt monumental.
English soccer has a history of being robust and direct in style, with modern principles bringing more flow. Against Mexico, they showed all of that in one, in the team’s first genuinely impressive performance of the tournament, having reached the round of 16 unconvincingly.
Jarell Quansah’s red card meant England played for over 40 minutes with a man less than home team Mexico, surviving a barrage of 13 shots at goal and only having 28 percent of possession in the second half, but held out for the victory.
The tension gripped England fans at home – in the middle of the night. (Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)
That game kicked off at 2am Monday in England, as supporters watched their countrymen play with grit and chemistry in various weird and wonderful ways, an experience for the ages.
What are the expectations of England fans?
England hosts the planet’s biggest domestic soccer league and has produced some of the sport’s best players, but that has not translated into glory for 60 long years.
The Premier League is the most-represented league at the tournament with 154 players (Spain’s La Liga is next with 94), but the influx of foreign signings has changed the game domestically. There are more Englishmen than ever playing for clubs abroad, too, with five of coach Tuchel’s squad now based away from their homeland.
The only major tournament win for England’s men’s team was in 1966, when it hosted and won the World Cup (the women’s side, in contrast, is a two-time European champion, winning in 2022 and 2025), a pinnacle that 14 managers have subsequently failed to replicate.
England forged a consistent knack of losing penalty shootouts, exiting six tournaments via this route between 1990 and 2012, and its ‘Golden generation’ in the 2000s, containing players including Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, never made it past the quarter-finals, even failing to qualify for the 2008 Euros.
Manager Gareth Southgate’s appointment followed a humiliating Euro 2016 round-of-16 exit to Iceland, a country with a smaller population than Cleveland and appearing in its first ever major tournament, and the bizarre one-game reign of Sam Allardyce, launching the team’s most successful post-1966 era.
England made it to a World Cup semi-final and two Euros finals under him but could not clear the final hurdle, and Southgate’s reign came to an end after losing the Euro 2024 final 2-1 to Spain, which scored the winner in the 86th minute.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has even hinted there could be a national holiday if England went all the way and lifted the World Cup trophy on July 19.
Why do England have a German as coach?
Tuchel is the third non-Englishman to lead the English national soccer team (after Sweden’s Sven-Goran Eriksson and Italian Fabio Capello).
No side, men or women, has won a FIFA World Cup with a non-native coach but for England, appointing Tuchel did not feel like a gamble. The 52-year-old German won the UEFA Champions League as Chelsea manager in 2021, and his broader pedigree across European club soccer means he could legitimately be a candidate for any coaching vacancy in the sport.
The strange part was his nationality, given the historical tensions between England and Germany, on and off the football pitch.
England beat West Germany in that 1966 final, but that opponent has dumped the English (first as West Germany and a reunified Germany from 1992) out of four subsequent tournaments.
England’s German coach Thomas Tuchel. (Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
For the English Football Association, it was time to put rivalries aside and appoint the best man for the job.
Who are England’s stars?
As the leaders in the Golden Boot race, the exploits of Kylian Mbappe (8), Lionel Messi (8) and Erling Haaland (7) have grabbed the limelight at this World Cup, but England’s Harry Kane (6) is in contention for that award given to the tournament’s top goalscorer, too.
Given his reserved manner, the Bayern Munich striker is used to not attracting the headlines of his fellow ‘galacticos’, but there is an argument to say he surpasses them on the pitch.
Last season, the 32-year-old beat Haaland and Mbappe to be European club soccer’s leading goalscorer, netting 36 times, and five of his six goals for England this tournament have decided their results.
Then there is Jude Bellingham, the Real Madrid midfielder whose swagger and mindset have made him equally as important.
He debuted for his country at 17, signed for Madrid at 19 and is now in his fourth tournament with England at 23.
His 95th-minute bicycle-kick equaliser in Euro 2024’s round of 16 saved England from an embarrassing exit to Slovakia, with Kane then scoring the winner in extra time. It also proved how the duo complement rather than compete with each other — an in-form partnership to frighten any defense.
#OnThisDay in 2024, Bellingham produced a sensational 95th-minute bicycle kick at #EURO2024 👏 pic.twitter.com/sCjtVjm8K9
— England (@England) June 30, 2026
Who else should I look out for?
Jordan Pickford was as important as anyone against Mexico, making three fine saves. The Everton goalkeeper, 32, is appearing at his sixth consecutive tournament and is the ’keeper with the second-most appearances for England — 89.
Elliot Anderson completed a £116million move from Nottingham Forest to Manchester City during the World Cup, which was no surprise given the control the 23-year-old gives England’s midfield and his relentless energy and availability.
Newcastle United defender Dan Burn’s first appearance of the tournament as a substitute against Mexico endeared him to the whole nation back home. The 34-year-old, 6ft 7in Burn made six headed clearances, the most of anyone in the game despite only coming on after 75 of the 90 minutes, summing up the character England is showing at this World Cup.
Dan Burn put his body and head on the line against Mexico. (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
Assistant coach Anthony Barry’s importance has come to the fore, too. Tuchel praised Barry, 40, for his idea to move Declan Rice from midfield into defense in the round of 32 against DR Congo, England coming from a goal down to win 2-1 through two late Kane goals after that tactical change.
Barry’s half-time TV interviews have generated traction back home, too.
So, will England end the 60 years of hurt?
England’s path to glory from here includes a quarterfinal against Haaland’s Norway today (Saturday) and a potential semifinal with Messi’s reigning world champions Argentina on Wednesday before possibly facing Mbappe’s France, a team pursuing a third straight World Cup final appearance, or Spain, the opponent it lost to in the Euros final two years ago next Sunday with the sport’s most coveted trophy on the line.
But given the elite status of the coach, the form of key players and the unity across the squad in the U.S. and nation back home, England has had no better chance since 1966 to be crowned world champions for a second time.
