No one suffers more from England’s poor offensive play than their captain and goalscorer Harry Kane. The quarter-final match against Switzerland was the greatest example of the loneliness and lack of football that has made him desperate in this Euro Cup. Against the Swiss he touched 26 balls and none of them were to shoot at goal. His actions with the ball had a lot to do with his desperation. Fed up with the density and individualism of Foden, Bellinghamn and Saka preventing him from getting balls in advantage to attack Sommer’s goal, Kane dropped down to receive or went to the wing to touch the ball and feel like he was playing a football match. “Every game is different, of course we would like him to touch the ball a lot more, but we have won and in the next game we will see what we can do to improve,” said Saka, who scored the English equaliser that led to extra time and then the penalty shoot-out.
To make matters worse, a knock to his calf forced England’s midfielder Gareth Southgate to replace him. England’s great penalty specialist was unable to take part in the final shoot-out. He watched with a sad face as his team-mates converted all five of the shots that would see England face the Netherlands in tomorrow’s semi-final in Dortmund.
“I felt calm, although it was difficult for me not to be involved in the penalty shoot-outs,” Kane admitted in the mixed zone at the Arenastadion in Düsseldorf. Minutes earlier, in the press conference after the match against Switzerland, Southgate tried to cut off criticism about his captain’s poor performance, highlighting his crucial role in the cohesion of the squad. Southgate presented Kane as the older brother of the group of egos he captains. “He is leading incredibly, he is a very positive influence in the camp, guiding the young players with everything the team has had to deal with in the early stages of the tournament…” defended the English coach.
Kane himself seemed to take on that role after the match: “The lads have shown great resilience. We were behind and we managed to equalise. If you look at what has happened in the big tournaments in recent years, it is that the champions have managed to hold on. We are in the semi-finals. We are finding a way to get through,” said the Bayern Munich striker.
Meanwhile, the English press and former players who comment on the matches have opened the debate on the advisability of fielding Kane, who until recently was untouchable. They accuse him of being overweight and of being slow and lacking spark in the area that limits his game and also that of the team. Southgate is being asked to dare to sit him down and to field Ollie Watkins, the Aston Villa striker. Southgate is not receptive to this demand. Kane is one of his own and he is unlikely to sit him down.
Images of Harry Kane demanding the ball are common in Euro 2019 matches. So are his scolding and anger when he considers that a teammate’s individualism is excessive. In the draw against Denmark, Kane reproached Foden for ignoring him when he was unmarked and running to enter the area and face Schmeichel. Foden preferred to dribble inside and unleash a shot that went nowhere.
On the other hand, tomorrow’s match has a touch of morbidity due to the reunion between Jude Bellingham and the German referee Felix Zwayer. Both coincided in the Bundesliga and the last time they met, Bellingham came off badly. He complained about a possible penalty that Zwayer did not whistle in a match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. After the match, Bellingham, visibly angry with Zwayer’s decisions, charged against the German referee in statements to the Swedish media ViaPlay: “If you give the most important match in Germany to a referee who has already fixed matches before… What did you expect?” he said in reference to Zwayer, suspended for six months in 2005 by the German federation for having allegedly participated in a match-fixing scandal in 2005. Bellingham was fined 40,000 euros.
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