England and France will face off in Saturday’s World Cup third-place playoff in Miami, with both camps candidly admitting they would rather be preparing for Sunday’s final, even as their respective coaches insist duty demands nothing less than a fight for bronze.
Ahead of the match, England head coach Thomas Tuchel fielded pointed questions in a tense news conference about his side’s dramatic semi-final collapse against Argentina, in which a 1-0 lead turned into a 2-1 defeat in the closing stages.
“If you need someone to blame, I take the responsibility,” Tuchel said, while insisting he carried no regrets over his tactical decisions.
Reflecting on the final 35 minutes of the game, Tuchel admitted England had become too passive. “I felt the same way – that we were too passive,” he said.
“If you’re asking if I regret my decision, if this is the question, then I don’t regret my decisions. I felt that the momentum switches in the match. And I tried to help my team… I took several decisions, trusting my instinct, my intuition, my experience, trusting my competitiveness, and I took the decision in order to help the team and get the result.
“We didn’t get the result. So I take, of course, the responsibility for these decisions. I would regret if I didn’t help. I would regret if we didn’t react,” Tuchel who has come under criticisms from fans, pundits, fellow coaches and on Friday U.S. Donald Trump said.
Trump, speaking at Trump Tower during a reception alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino, questioned Harry Kane’s second-half “defensive” role.
He said, “You have a great player in England who I’ve played golf with. And he is Harry [Kane] who has been fantastic.”
He added, “I think they perhaps made a mistake when they made him a defensive player. What do I know about soccer? They took the lead, and they took their best player and put him on defence.
“We got to be a little offensive, right. But no, I’m not going to call it, what do I know about coaching? But that was a little unusual,” Trump who hailed the ongoing World Cup as the greatest human sporting event said.
But Tuchel declined to shift blame elsewhere saying,”No problem. “This is the deal that you sign up for, but I will not engage. For me, there is no-one to blame. If you need someone to blame, I take the responsibility. I’m the head coach.”
When pressed further about England’s defensive shape late in the game, he explained the switch to a back five was a direct response to Argentina’s attacking surge.
“They had a lot of offensive changes, and a lot of offensive positions,” he said.
THE WHISTLER reports that England scored in the 55th minute of the semi-final game and held on until the 85th before Argentina drew level. England conceded the second goal in the 92nd minute.
These all happened after a raft of changes from the England manager who reverted to five-man defence that allowed pressure on the team.
The low block allowed Argentina the opportunity to stretch England, pinning them back against their goal resulting in the 2-1 loss which Tuchel said “has become a pain in us.”
Speaking ahead of what many have described as a dead rubber game, Tuchel lamented his mistakes and the collective agony that befell his team saying, “We could not stop the crosses, and we could not stop the runners into the box. So we decided to play a back five, to have more width in the field, to be closer to the guys who cross.
“We just became too passive, and Argentina, by the way, found another gear and they found the total flow,” he lamented.
He put the defeat in context, noting the scale of the challenge England had faced. “We played in the semi-final against the reigning world champions. We were 85 minutes 1-0 up. We played against the best player in the world, and we lost 2-1, which is painful.”
On suggestions that England’s physical output had dipped compared to their earlier group game against DR Congo, Tuchel acknowledged that the punishing conditions of previous matches may have taken a toll.
“Even if we don’t want to admit it because it feels like an excuse,” he said, matches played with ten men in the altitude of the Azteca Stadium and in the heat against Norway in Miami “cost us more than we maybe thought.”
He added, “The players literally gave everything physically [in] every single match. If you see this data drop, there must be a reason behind it, because the motivation was through the roof.”
Tuchel spoke about the emotional toll of the semi-final loss, which came after Argentina scored in the 85th and 92nd minutes.
“We feel the most pain of all, and it is our scar that we carry now,” he said.
“It’s our pain, my pain, and the players’ pain. It is a very painful defeat, and we have to live with this defeat, first and foremost, not the critics, not the experts, not our family members, who suffer as well with us, and want only the best for us.
“We will overcome it, we will use it, we will have a reaction, and it starts from tomorrow. If we win the game tomorrow, we have the best results of a World Cup in 60 years. It’s a perspective to it.”
He also reflected on where England stand relative to the world’s elite. “We believed we could do it,” he said.
“We were dreaming about it. Still, I believe that three other nations have almost an expectation to win the title, not us.
“France, Spain, Argentina [are] almost there on that level that they expect to win. We are not there yet.
“There is still a gap to close. And this is what we will do. This is what we will do from tomorrow. We will not stop chasing. We will not stop hunting, we will not stop challenging.”
France, meanwhile, arrived in Miami following their own semi-final exit, a 2-0 defeat to Spain that ended their bid for a third consecutive World Cup final.
Speaking at his own pre-match press conference, France coach Didier Deschamps admitted neither side wants to be playing Saturday’s fixture, but stressed the match still carries weight.
“I have a duty for this game. It is not a friendly. It is a third-place playoff. The players, staff, and I have the duty to reach this last objective.
“It is less important than the final. England does not want to play this game, and neither do we. But here we are,” Deschamps said, as quoted by Reuters.
Deschamps, who confirmed the match will be his last in charge of France, said the team remains focused on secuing third place despite the circumstances.
“We have to set our eyes on that goal to be third and make this final goal a reality. We have this duty when wearing this jersey.
“In my head, I know that it is my last match. I don’t want anybody to cry. The end is near, but life goes on,” he said.
France defender Ibrahima Konaté echoed his coach’s sentiments, admitting the squad’s motivation stems largely from a desire to send Deschamps off with a win.
“None of us wanted to play for this third place, but we have no choice. We want to pay back our coach,” Konaté said.
“He did so much for the France team. We must be grateful to him for that, and we need to do everything we can to win this game… to get this chocolate medal, this bronze medal,” Konaté added.
