Believe

A lot has happened in the world of soccerball since my last call for perspective on England’s slow and steady progression through the tournament stages.  A dozen more posts from N’Golo Birchy for a start as he exposes me as the Matt Le Tissier of blogging, cancelled sky subscriptions in 10 Downing Street… and so much more. Like it or not, this “underperforming” England team has hit every green light in town to slowly cruise through to the point of being in the bleeding semi final! Tremendous…more of that later. Here are my other highlights (& lowlights) from the last week or so of tourney action both sides of the pond:

Spain - Let’s face it. The best team in the tournament by a mile. With the most prodigious young talent on the planet. As the owner of a young teenager myself,  I will be happy to just see him in one piece by the time he hits 16, and that would be a successful outcome. Yamal has just scored an absolute worldy in a Euro semi final! Amazing.

France - Amazed they actually scored a goal today and they leave the tournament with nobody all too upset. I do think it was unlucky that Mbappe had his face rearranged in the group stages, he really never got going after the injury and none more so illustrative than today with some trademark chances that the 2021/2022 version would have buried. Au revoir 

Portugal - disappointed that my pick failed to score the one goal that would have been enough to see off the French, thus depriving us of a semi final chant of “you’re way older than his dad!” as Yamal skipped past a weary Pepe for the umpteenth time… sadly it wasn’t to be, not helped by assistant manager Roberto Martinez’ crippling inability to substitute his boss despite an abundance of attacking talent ready to go on the bench. I look forward to a repeat in the World Cup in ‘26 as CR7 continues to amble around, ably supported by the USA Jumbotrons in the stadium so he’s fully aware of when the camera is on his aging body.

Everton alumni association - As well as Bobby Brown Shoes, there has been a good showing at the tournament from Ronald Koeman as the Dutch start to warm up, as well as a few surprise cameos I wasn’t expecting, including Cenk Tosun, not really doing much at all on the field (which felt reassuringly familiar), but outstanding in his gleeful leadership of the celebrations in Turkey’s win in the round of 16, and stateside, finding myself see Salomon Rondon roam with menace against a cowering Canadian defence (he actually did score!), and even more enlightening was seeing a rejuvenated James Rodriguez pull all of the strings for a free scoring Columbia team. 

Copa America - it’s been great to have this running along at the same time as the Euros (but with more convenient start times). The USA bombed out of the tournament at the group stage (the first hosts in a long time to do so). A lot of work is needed ahead of 2026. A slight oddity of this competition is the knockout games go to penalties after 90 mins. 3 out of 4 quarter finals went to pens - providing us with another scrapbook of Emi Martinez gyrations and a Uruguay team that kicked Brazil all over the park before dispatching them from 12 yards. At time of writing, Argentina are in the final, but semi #2 between Uruguay and Columbia promises to be a great game…or a complete street fight with multiple red cards. We will see.

And onto England. Having now seen the change in Birchy’s demeanour with his latest post, this only furthers my excitement and belief. We’re at the business end of the tournament and instead of the fear of not making it through the group stage or an easy last 16, England now get to look forward and see the finish line is only (hopefully) two games away and we start to dream of what we could achieve. Maybe my decades of Everton watching puts me in a different position than most, but if we get this done over the next 2 games, I will not care one bit how expansive our play is. And that is one indisputable fact - this team are getting it done (just), every single game. Be it big players with just a flash of world class quality (Jude and Saka), or 5 of the most proficient penalties in English history proving its not “a lottery”, this just feels slightly different from the glorious failures of the past. 

Of course, it could all go up in a puff of Orange smoke today, the Dutch have shown an improving trend as they’ve progressed…but we have the players that can step up to the challenge and provide those big moments. Heck, we might even get a left back playing left back. I need a lie down…

Over to you Gareth…. Time to dream and time to believe! Just 120 minutes to hold out for penalties!