"Very often, you have to go close to winning to be able to learn how to win," Gareth Southgate said last week. Two finals. Three finals in three tournaments across the men's and women's game. England have spent years getting close. The question is whether close finally becomes enough in North America this summer.
Thomas Tuchel named his 26-man squad without a single injury headache — a luxury England managers have rarely enjoyed. Two players per outfield position, a third goalkeeper, and three wildcards: Dan Burn for aerial presence, Eberechi Eze for unpredictability, and Ivan Toney as a penalty specialist and heat-acclimatised wildcard given his time in Saudi Arabia. It reads like a squad built for a tournament, not just a squad built.
Planning as seriously as playing
Inside the FA, the phrase doing the rounds is that this World Cup "will be won as much in the planning as the playing." That's not spin. The first 48-team tournament is a logistical labyrinth spanning three countries and extreme climates. England's 11-day Miami camp was deliberately chosen to prepare players for the most oppressive heat on the schedule. Players have been wearing Whoop smart bands tracking heart rate and sleep — and for the first time, those bands are permitted in matches.
They beat New Zealand 1-0 in Tampa, followed up with a 3-0 win over Costa Rica in Orlando, and the squad that didn't feature in those games will run out against amateur side Miami United in a closed-doors training match Thursday. Then a day and a half off before flying to Kansas City — their tournament base — on Saturday.
Kansas City matters. FIFA allocated the best training facilities there to Argentina and the Netherlands, who each have group fixtures in the city. The FA moved quickly enough to secure Swope Soccer Village — third choice, but theirs — alongside a 54-room hotel where regular staff have been stood down for a month so England can operate entirely on their own terms.
The Kane question — and why it's not really a question
Tuchel's stated philosophy is to build around Harry Kane with "complementary players, not the biggest names." That might raise eyebrows in some quarters. It shouldn't. Kane is the world's most prolific active striker and says he's in "physically, mentally, the best shape of my career." Constructing a team to extract the best from someone in that form isn't naïve — it's logical.
Behind Kane sits a midfield that could be one of the tournament's most effective: Declan Rice, Elliot Anderson, and either Jude Bellingham or Morgan Rogers. A rebuilt defence that conceded zero goals across qualifying. A Champions League-winning manager in his first World Cup, not yet burdened by the weight of previous failures with this group.
- England reached the final of Euro 2024 (men), World Cup 2023 (women) and Euro 2025 (women)
- They qualified for this World Cup with a perfect record
- Their defining performance under Tuchel: five goals without reply in Belgrade
- The last World Cup held in the USA, in 1994, was the last time England failed to qualify
The competition is real. France and Spain don't go away. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have won seven of the eight World Cups held in the Americas. Portugal, even with a 41-year-old Ronaldo fading, carry threats beyond one player.
But England sit in an interesting place in the market — below the top favourites, carrying enough quality to go deep, with a squad depth and organisational detail that most sides won't match. That gap between expectation and preparation is exactly where upsets are made.
Southgate put it plainly: "So many of the barriers to winning have been passed." The one that remains is the hardest. It always is.
