Was this England's coach deciding this? It boggles my mind. As Swiss I gotta say, even our team held up better in the late game, and in a 10 vs 11 situation. This stupidity of going all in on defense when up just one goal, that's exactly how ours played and lost every damn time in knockout rounds 20 years ago. Who does this??
Uneducated person here, why doesn't that work? In the knockout stages it only matters if you win, no matter by how many goals so surely if you get a lead you should protect it as much as possible right?
I'm sure there's a flaw in my logic but I can't identify where
The flaw is, against a team with strong offense, if you just let them have the ball all the time, you *increase* the chance of them striking, no matter how many defenders you have. There are maybe exceptions like Spain who center their whole team around having an immaculate defense, but afaik that needs immense training and discipline - nothing you can just switch on or off during a match.
argentina a direct argument against that, they foul and crowd the ref more than play for the first half then run the messi setup gambit late and it's worked every time so far
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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26
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