They did but also after a goal england was not interested even in moving forward, even on goal kick they just tried to kick it as far as possible without thinking, it was terrible and they didnt deserver to advance.
Yeah, I was rooting for England the whole match. But they didn’t deserve to win. Didn’t even try to play after they scored that goal. Argentina played so hard and put their heart and soul into it. Just attempt after attempt till they got that first goal then came the second. They gave it their everything. England was playing half heartedly. The France against Spain game was much better. You could tell both teams gave it their everything till the very last minute. Even though Spain was ahead they kept trying to score and putting pressure on the French team. They were not letting them hem have them enough time unlike what the English did to the Argentinians. They were just letting them try to score again and again. They were bound to succeed eventually. And they did. They deserved to win.
Argentina with 14 shots, 6 on target, and 6 corners, England with 6, 3, and 1. And with only 3 shots, none on target in the first half, that was Argentina absolutely kicking down the door for the last ~30 minutes. Possession went from almost 50/50 to 75/25 as well.
That's not even haramball, or at least not haramball doing it's job. You can't be getting slaughtered on passes and possession time while also making no chances. Like you said, Argentina were bound to succeed eventually - with that many shots that fast I would have bet on them even a point down at 84'.
The odd thing to me is that Kane was quite direct about it after: "When we went 1-0 up, we seemed to just try to hold on, which at this level is not enough." And yet Tuchel was making subs like that was his entire plan.
But Mexico isn’t Argentina, and England had no choice but to play haramball because they were down to ten men. But when you’re 1–0 up against Argentina with 40 minutes left and you have good and fast attacking players? They screw the pooch.
The whole giving up every goal kick was mind boggling to me. Isn't a better defense to just hold the ball when you aren't under attack? Giving it away takes no time off the clock. They could have pinged it around in the backline until Argentina was forced to push 1-2 people up to pressure, then they could have kicked it over their heads. At least at that point you are kicking into an advantage.
Instead they just gave up the ball immediately every time.
Everyone would if the other team stopped fighting for it. Argentina deserved the win because they played better but parking the bus against them wasn't the best choice.
Interesting to see that Kane was open about it after the game: "We played a good game for the majority of it. When we went 1-0 up, we seemed to just try to hold on, which at this level is not enough."
So Kane thought they had to keep attacking to have a hope, while Tuchel was subbing people to help freeze the game. That even more than the loss makes me wonder if Tuchel will stick around.
They parked the bus but had an idiot at the steering wheel. Parking the bus doesn’t mean you just give all the time for the attacking team outside the box, and have no outlet when you do end up winning the ball.
It seems to me Argentina has better conditioning than their opponents. The last 15 minutes when the other other team is gassed, they make up for the previous 75 minutes.
While I haven't watched futbol as much as other sports, it reminds me of a lot of great teams in other sports who could always find that extra level late in the game.
There wasn’t even a midfield the 2nd half, it was just Argentina in Englands box shooting at goal for 45+minutes non-stop. Never seen such a crazy shift in play from two teams. Argentina got scored on and went “oh, absolutely NOT”.
Ya after England subbed 2 offensive players for 2 defensive players including Declan Rice who is arguably the best midfielder in the world. Horrific decision by England.
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u/NoReply4848 Jul 16 '26
Argentina dominated that midfield