At the end of an extraordinary day in the US capital and a World Cup draw that lurched between the ridiculous and the sublime (with a greater emphasis on the former, if the truth be told), Thomas Tuchel and England now know. Croatia in Toronto or Dallas. Ghana in Boston or Toronto. Panama in New Jersey or Philadelphia. And that is just the group games.
With the excitement running wild and, well, England being England, their determination to bring it home to the fore, it was not long before the permutations were being scrutinised. It could be Mexico at the Azteca in the last 16 – the scene of the Hand of God in 1986. It could be Brazil in Miami in the quarter-finals. Tuchel pulled a face as if to say: “Wow.” There had been a lot to process. And that is before we talk about the Honourable Donald J Trump and his Fifa peace prize glory.
On we hurtled to the heat and humidity; the travel. There was an idea before the draw that it was not so much about the who for England as the where and when – in terms of the specific stadiums they will play in and the kick-off times. They will not be revealed until Saturday at a secondary ceremony that starts at 5pm UK time. Fifa is certainly getting bang for its buck from this event.
As an aside, Tuchel indicated that the Football Association would probably have to think again about its idea to look for a training base in Kansas City – with England given a largely east coast outlook. The FA is also now clear to confirm the proposed March friendlies against Japan and Uruguay at Wembley.
Then Tuchel essentially said stop. About the overthinking. About the obsessing. For him, it has to be about the controlling of what England can control. And a phrase that he has mentioned numerous times came up again: bring it on. All the difficulties, everything. England will confront them on their terms.
“We don’t worry,” Tuchel said. “We don’t worry about our opponents. We don’t worry about what can happen, what happens in the other groups. Just focus on what we can really influence. This is the mindset and the energy that we want to keep on having.
“Someone said: ‘Whoever wins the medal in New Jersey [in the final], they will absolutely deserve it at the toughest tournament.’ What’s just been said to me [about Mexico and Brazil in the knockout rounds] … it sounds like a pretty hard tournament.
“I would be excited to play in Mexico City because I remember the World Cup there. When I watched it as a teenager, it was like watching something from Mars or another galaxy so to play a knockout game against Mexico …
“But we are not getting carried away now talking about Mexico or Brazil. We don’t know if we meet them. And we don’t meet them for sure if we don’t perform in the group so we need to make sure that we are there. Who else joins us, we cannot influence.”
Tuchel joked that he would definitely be getting a message from the Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic, whom he managed at Chelsea. And it is fair to say that England have history with Croatia, most notably from the 2-1 semi‑final defeat at the 2018 World Cup. England beat Croatia 1-0 in the opening group game at Euro 2020.
Croatia were the highest seeded team in pot two of the draw here while Ghana emerged from pot four. The African nation, who can call upon Premier League talents such as Antoine Semenyo and Mohammed Kudus, have only played England once – in a 1-1 friendly draw at Wembley in 2011. England’s lone game against Panama was the 6-1 victory at the group stage of the 2018 World Cup. So, is it a good draw?
“I think it’s a very complex group, a very difficult group but, OK, it is what it is,” Tuchel said. “Croatia are difficult. It’s a big opening match and it could easily be a quarter-final or even later in the tournament but we don’t wish for things. We don’t want to avoid at all costs anything.”
The event as a whole will live long in the memory and not completely for the right reasons, beginning with the farce of the scramble for entry into the Kennedy Center for non-VIP guests – in other words, the world’s media. Hundreds and hundreds of them queued for more than two hours in the snow, surviving the forensic bag searches, and it was not long before they were rubbing their eyes in disbelief.
The highlights? Where to start? Probably with Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president or, as he put it at one point, the leader of the organisation that is the “official happiness provider” of the tournament. The cringeworthy snapshots piled up, taking in Infantino’s efforts to whip up the audience into chants of “USA, USA, USA”.
The low point was surely when Infantino presented Trump with the Fifa peace prize, the US president getting a huge trophy, gleaming medal and certificate, too. “You can wear the medal wherever you want,” Infantino said. Trump promptly hung it around his own neck.
There was the unscheduled moment when Infantino organised a stunt that saw Trump, the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, and the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, step up as impromptu draw assistants. For a few seconds, it appeared as though Trump would be a part of the entire draw. Instead, the trio pulled out only their own nations, those that will co-host.
The off-cuts? How about Lionel Scaloni, the manager of the defending champions, Argentina, emerging with the World Cup trophy, suited up but also wearing a pair of white gloves, like a high‑end snooker referee. Perish the thought that Scaloni’s skin might touch the gold. On we went before, after nearly 90 minutes, we finally got to the draw. There was genuine tension, drama; confusion at times, too. The outcome would reverberate around the world.
