Having taken the lead courtesy of Anthony Gordon in the 55th minute, England appeared in line for their first men’s FIFA World Cup Final appearance in 60 years on Wednesday, before the Three Lions ran out of bite - a topic U.S. Women’s National Team boss and longtime Chelsea head coach Emma Hayes has now weighed in on.
After England took the lead, Argentina released the cavalry, going all-out attack, pinning Thomas Tuchel’s side back further and further as the game wore on. In the 72nd minute, in the first of several controversial changes, Tuchel opted to take Gordon - arguably England’s main goal-scoring threat all game - off in favor of defender Ezri Konsa.
Just 10 minutes later, two further changes were afoot with defender Reece James replaced by the 6ft7” man mountain Dan Burn, who had previously been deployed to good effect to deal with the constant crosses into the box. Meanwhile, midfielder Declan Rice was withdrawn in favor of left-back Nico O’Reilly.
But England’s defensive reinforcements weren’t enough to hold Argentina at bay, with Lionel Scaloni’s side frequently finding pockets of space out wide as well as on the edge of Jordan Pickford’s penalty area. The latter proved the start of England’s undoing with Enzo Fernández equalizing via a long-range effort in the 85th minute.
Then came Lionel Messi, given space to work out wide on the right, swinging in a cross to Lautaro Martínez at the back post to head Argentina in front in the 92nd minute.
Tuchel attempted to react quickly, bringing on forwards Marcus Rashford and Ivan Toney four minutes later, but it was too little and far, far too late.
Reflecting on the semifinal and the final that could have been, Hayes broke down her thoughts on Tuchel’s approach during a recent appearance on ‘The Rest Is Football.’
“I just think once Scaloni made the first chess move after the goal, that for me was the biggest blow because he instantly, not just with [Nico] Gonzalez coming on, he’s pushed the team up,” Hayes said.
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“And you talk about four against the backline; there’s more than that, he had six up against them. Then it was react to what Scaloni was doing and then of course enter the genius which is Messi, and I think with [Rodrigo] De Paul coming on it allowed Messi to go out wide on the right and that…Argentina are a team that are death by a thousand cuts.”
Hayes went on to defend Tuchel, claiming that from her perspective, she could see the players instinctively drop deep following an Argentinian attack after Gordon’s goal. “That was not coaching-led. Anthony Barry was up (Tuchel’s assistant) pushing the team to get up, to get out.
“Then, of course, you have the opportunity in the hydration break. He chose not to change personnel in a radical way because it would have involved taking off our top two players, potentially. I think he was caught in a position where he was constantly reacting to Scaloni's moves.
“And so I do agree with him that when you’ve got six pinning your four, it was inevitable we would go into the five, but it was because Scaloni got the first punch every time.”
Delving deeper into what exactly was missing from England’s performance, Hayes pinpointed a mental block that continues to stand between the Three Lions and taking that final step. She believes that when examining sides such as Spain and Argentina, they have learned since day one to play “as a collective, as a brotherhood,” something that Tuchel may simply need more time to continue to build, as there simply hasn’t been that success at a senior level to follow as an example.
Hayes then also noted that both of the coaches in the 2026 final, Scaloni and Luis de la Fuente, have both worked for their national teams for extensive periods, furthering her point that time is needed.
Returning to the game in question, Hayes said that from her perspective, England “needed fresh legs. Especially in the front areas.
“The challenge of all of those things is because Messi had peeled out wide, now you're going to ask a forward player to deal with the overload that they've got there. It was the fact that they'd created that situation.
“I think he did deal with that, but Scaloni said, ‘Well, you’ve got nothing coming on your right-hand side. We'll take our left back out.’ Then it pinned us even further. I don't want to say s— or bust in those moments, but the hydration break- I think if he had it again, he might do something differently. And that might involve taking some of the front players off.”
England ultimately had to settle for a trip to Miami to take on France in the third-place playoff, which they won 6-4 to conclude their most successful World Cup since 1966. Although following their blown semifinal lead, it may take some time for this tournament to feel like anything other than a missed golden opportunity.
Source: Alloutsoccer.com
