On a night when they should have put Group B to bed, England failed to get anywhere close to an adequate level of fight, determination and spirit.
As the full-time whistle blew, an echo of boos from the travelling support could be heard ringing around the Al Bayt Stadium in Doha – finishing off what was a lacklustre, dreary evening for Gareth Southgate’s men.
England were unrecognisable – a stark contrast from the team which completed a 6-2 thumping of Iran in their opening fixture.
As such, optimism and anticipation has quickly given way to a feeling of edginess and uncertainty.
Several key English performers were stifled by the aggressiveness, dynamism and physicality of a young U.S. side.
Led by Christian Pulisic who had a first-half strike hammer the crossbar, the Americans constantly buzzed and harassed, and surprisingly, had the better of the games chances.
However, they too failed to take advantage of another glaring opportunity – an all to similar story to that of their Monday night 1-1 draw against Wales.
Despite having no cutting edge, England made a promising start, controlling possession of the ball for the opening stages.
Yet, personified through a dominant display from the midfield trio of Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah and captain, Tyler Adams, the U.S. soon wrestled superiority, as their now customary high-powered pressing system slowly crushed English passing lines.
Consistently forcing turnovers in the midfield area, the U.S. were always quick to rush forward on the counter.
McKennie came close – and should have scored – after he blasted a snatched shot over the crossbar from no more than 10-yards out.
An unbelievable opportunity, this was almost immediately followed on the 32nd minute by a firecracker off of Pulisic’s left foot from just inside the box. Inches away, his shot cannoned off the crossbar before falling to safety behind Jordan Pickford’s goal.
In contrast, the second-half failed to entertain any sort of goalmouth action. The Americans, however, were never overawed and on the grand scale of play fully deserved a victory.
Tactically, Southgate was found flailing.
Fully outplayed – he added further fire to an uninspiring performance through indecisiveness and questionable substitutions. When Jack Grealish, and later Marcus Rashford were finally introduced into the action, it was all but too late for them to make a true impact.
Surprisingly, Manchester City starlet, Phil Foden was also left to warm the bench leaving further doubts as to whether he indeed does fit into this English system.
In his post-match press conference, Southgate deflected away from his team’s colourless performance – instead offering to throw applause to an American team which is fast becoming the surprise of the tournament.
“Look, I’m really pleased with the application of the players. It was a really tough opponent, they defended incredibly well,” he said.
“To come off the high of the performance the other day and find that same energy, level of quality, was always going to be a challenge.
“But we had to show another side of ourselves in terms of the resilience without the ball, recovery runs, defending our box well, defending corners and set plays that came in.”
Speaking after two consecutive draws, head coach Greg Berhalter offered similar words of praise to his U.S. side, before then turning up the focus ahead of their crunch tie against Iran on Tuesday.
“I think both teams worked hard, both teams gave each other difficulties at times and all in all pleased with the effort. Anytime you can get a shutout at the World Cup, it’s a good thing.”
“I think any time you’re in a World Cup and you get to go into the last group game controlling your destiny, that’s a pretty good thing. England has the same scenario, we have the same scenario, and it’s fine for us.”
“We’re not done. Our focus is to keep going. And I think hopefully by the end of the tournament, we’ll give people something to talk about.”
With four points from two games, the result keeps England at the head of Group B – though they now do so in a less than commanding position.
The U.S. on the other hand now sit in third.
The result comes after Iran completed a shock victory over a struggling Wales side to jump up to second in the group.
(First published in December 2022)
Sportswide Blog 
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