Football Daily | The dullest game of the World Cup so far? Welcome back, England

YAWN IN THE USA England, an apology. Football Daily and the wider English media may have previously depicted Thomas Tuchel’s lads as world champions in waiting after taking apart a Croatian team led by Luka Modric, 78, in a second-half Texan surge, but we were all so very wrong. Still, as the nation awoke following the goalless draw with Ghana , we had our England back. Tradition matters. Tea cups on the lawn, curled-up cucumber sandwiches, overpriced service stations, complaining about the weather, prime ministers departing office; familiarity is important to this nation’s psyche. England serving up the dullest game yet of the Geopolitics World Cup brought that self-same wash of familiarity. A corner of a foreign field that is forever England playing like a drain, a nation’s hopes sagging. England, our ruddy bloody England, welcome home, we’ve been expecting you. In Massachusetts, English attacks were dashed on the rocks of a carefully laid plan by the familiar face of Carlos Queiroz, a wily fox who knows just how to push the buttons of opponents getting ahead of themselves. The stats read 80% possession to England , 19 shots to two, but an xG of 1.28, which probably accounted for Nico O’Reilly’s header off the bar and Harry Kane clanking the rebound into the stratosphere. The ghosts of Sven, Capello, Hodgson and late-period Southgate made their presence felt. “Boston Z Party” read one waggish headline. …