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It was somehow in keeping with the bedlam that has gripped Mexico since Tuesday night when the their team beat Ecuador to set up a World Cup last-16 showdown with England on Sunday. There was talk of an incoming storm, which is forecast to bring the risk of flooding and affect a game talked up as arguably the biggest in Mexico’s history. There was a figurative one, too.
The kick-off would have to be brought forward from 6pm local time (1am Monday BST) to midday, Fifa was told on Friday, and there followed an intense amount of back and forth, so many different people and companies to consider. In the end, it was decided that it would have to remain at 6pm. There was a lot of energy expended for no actual change and on everybody hurtled.
The memory of the party in Mexico City after the Ecuador game remains fresh, how the streets were jammed for about a mile in radius around El Ángel de la Independencia, no cars able to pass through. There were said to be a million fans present. It was the noise and emotion; the sense of a city at fever pitch, which is about to play out again.
Chaos is the theme and it applies to England, as well, because there was rather too much of it in their last-32 victory over the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Wednesday. Thomas Tuchel could feel it at the start and throughout what must now be termed the first quarter. Remember the words of the manager beforehand? “It can be a game of patience and we must not freak out,” he said.
England freaked out. It was a traumatic period, characterised by rushes of blood, England players trying too hard, overwhelmed by their desire. The DRC led 1-0 when the hydration break was called and the injured England substitute Reece James was moved to calm his teammate Jude Bellingham.
England ran on adrenaline, creating a fistful of chances thereafter, and got there in the end, Harry Kane scoring two late goals for a 2-1 win. Yet the worry nagged. In the cauldron of the Azteca Stadium, scene of Diego Maradona’s Hand of God in 1986, England may not live to fight another day if they begin so erratically. Or indeed, if they have such a spell at any point.
Mexico will be like a whirlwind for the opening 20 minutes, partly because they know it is when opposition players not used to the stadium being 2,240 metres above sea level really feel it. “The first 20 minutes … the other players will be needing some breath, some air,” the Mexico striker Raúl Jiménez said recently. “That’s when we can make the difference.”
Tuchel knows the storm is coming, and for him it is about composure and cohesion, making sure the energy is channelled rather than wasted. “We are fully aware that it took us basically a whole quarter [against the DRC] to adapt in our press,” he said. “We are fully committed to the effort that we put in but it’s not economical. We don’t choose the moments great. And we go too early, when we’re not set.
“We are impatient. And it has knock-on effects: the first one goes too early, the second one joins, no one says: ‘No, no, we don’t go.’ The third one just goes and wants to repair it and this leaves us disjointed, with too big distances. So we know, and we worked on it, that we need to pick our moments better; where to press, when to press. Then we need to be more in sync, we need to be more compact.”
The jitteriness has been seen in attack, too, including the final action in front of goal. Until the end of the last 32, no team missed more of what Opta defines as big chances than England. The number was 15, with six coming against the DRC. Next on the list were France with 12.
“We’re too fast in our attacks,” Tuchel said. “It’s almost like every attack plays out like a fast attack. We need to understand that sometimes the door is closed, it doesn’t help if you rush into it. Try the other door. Find another way. And worship the ball possession. Also to recharge. Otherwise we just run our batteries down with a huge effort and not so much reward. Talking about the first 15-20 minutes, we also expect that it feels very, very hard. What other teams tell us who went in there late, without acclimatisation, is that the first 15-20 minutes are where you basically hit a wall. But when you go through it, it gets better. That’s exactly why Mexico starts their games like this. They just want to suffocate you.”
When Tuchel took the England job, he made it plain that he wanted to play like a Premier League team – with aggression and bravery, overloads and incisive combinations. He criticised Sir Gareth Southgate’s squad for lacking identity at Euro 2024, saying they had no freedom and were “more afraid to drop out than have the excitement and hunger to win”.
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For significant periods of the World Cup, it has been hard to discern the identity of Tuchel’s England. Too confused. Too frenetic. The picture needs to clear.
“It’s because we’re a bit rushed in everything we do,” he said. “We lack a bit of patience. I still think we create a lot of chances against teams who don’t concede. I know what you mean [about the lack of identity]. I think physicality-input is the identity of the Premier League and we will try to stay brave, play up front and put players into the last lines, play with wingers.”
England stepped off their seventh flight in 12 days on Friday and are about to play their fourth game in 13 days. The period was always going to be a grind; one simply to plot a course through. Tuchel’s message is that he is not about to give up on his vision. Or rely purely on Kane.
“We haven’t abandoned at all,” he said. “We are working on it. We looked with a clear identity in our last warmup match against Costa Rica, but we lost a little bit the lightness and the rhythm. Maybe from tension and from the opponent. But we found it in glimpses.
“We’re not over-relying. What does this mean? That Argentina over-rely on [Lionel] Messi? It’s just what it is. Everyone is doing their job to find these spaces for Harry and then Harry is doing what he does. Everyone is committed and involved when we score goals. So it seems like a one-man show but it is not a one-man show for anyone. We will get better once the playing field levels out, when we’re not this huge favourite and teams will come to beat us. This is where we will see our identity and quality coming out more.”
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