EThere are some interesting developments in football’s recent and recent history, but one has been particularly interesting. It happened in the English Premier League, which has long been at the forefront of progress. That’s where the best players play. The best trainers train there. And yet, in the recent past, men from a country in particular have had a decisive influence, which people in England, where the game was once invented, see with great skepticism: America.
The New York Times reporter Rory Smith, an Englishman, documented this development in his recommendable book Expected Goals. He tells, for example, how the American Fenway Sports Group took over Liverpool FC – and also used a modern data approach to make the club it is today: one that can win the Champions League season after season.
And if you wanted to, on that World Cup night in Qatar, when the football teams from England and the USA played each other at the Al Bayt Stadium, you could ask heretical: Surely the Americans don’t know any better, do they? The answer wasn’t as clear as the many English fans among the 68,463 fans in the stadium might have hoped.
Not the next statement
It was a fast game, one of constant pressure and counter-pressure, but perhaps not the kind that was enough for England to establish themselves in the very front line of title contenders. They didn’t concede a goal against handy Americans, but they couldn’t score one themselves either. The final score: 0:0.
So the English did not continue on Friday what they started on Monday when they overran the Iranian team. The 6-2 announcement was not followed by the next statement, although there was a hint that it might be in the opening minutes of the game against the United States, who had drawn 1-1 with Wales on Matchday 1. Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka combined smartly in the penalty area.
In the end, however, the ball went wide of the goal rather than in, as a defender named Walker Zimmerman of Nashville FC blocked a shot from a forward named Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur with his legs.
From an aesthetic point of view, that was the pinnacle of English attacking art. Because the US team, which started with five Premier League players, demonstrated that you can control the English storm if you don’t let it get into the race. It defended aggressively in front of the penalty area – and also set accents on the other side.
When Weston McKennie fired in the 26th minute, England goalkeeper Jordan Pickard saved. When Christian Pulisic shot in the 33rd minute, the crossbar saved. How was that again with the better team? A question that wasn’t answered in the second half either.
