{"id":6273,"date":"2026-07-06T17:45:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T17:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=6273"},"modified":"2026-07-06T17:45:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T17:45:36","slug":"england-always-bottles-it-for-one-night-in-mexico-city-it-got-it-just-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=6273","title":{"rendered":"England Always Bottles It. For One Night In Mexico City, It Got It Just Right."},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The sound of lightning could be heard in the distance as the backdrop of Mexico City would turn into a dark, constantly evolving cloud of grey and blue. Animosity amongst both Mexican and English fans thickened inside the majestic Azteca stadium as a much-anticipated atmosphere between El Tri and the Three Lions continued to build.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Mexico City, a place that doesn\u2019t just bring out color and life on special occasions. It literally has it ingrained within it. It is a place of energy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>And Azteca, El Tri\u2019s fortress, which hadn\u2019t known a loss for 13 years until Sunday night, was the host for the evening and undoubtedly, without question, it was ready.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by ULISES RUIZ \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>This was a night for heroes and villains, broken hearts and lost voices.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>And we were all ready.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The match was ready, the people too, but mother nature \u2014 ever in her omnipotence, wanted to keep them waiting. Kick-off would be delayed. The build-up intensified and nerves multiplied.<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Julian Finney &#8211; FIFA\/FIFA via Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>But once the match arrived, and the national anthems were sung by the fans, which were overpoweringly dominated by the home crowd, we all knew this was going to be a special evening. A night of fire and lightning.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>For England? The Three Lions felt what we all witnessed, which was a vibrating cauldron of Mexican energy, literally vibrating inside one of the most iconic stadiums around the world. Mexican fans didn\u2019t just want to win today, they wanted destruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>And I have to be honest, in any other decade in the modern game, I would have seen it. I have lived too many years of anguish and seen England fail. From 1990, when Paul Gascoigne cried after seeing a yellow card in the semifinal against West Germany, thus suspending him for the final \u2013 it didn\u2019t matter as the Germans won in a shootout and England bowed out, ending in fourth place. And that particular ending would reverberate through the years as England fans would watch with heartache over and over failed attempts and mental collapses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>From the 4-1 humiliation at the hands of the Germans once again in the Round of 16 of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa to four years later in Brazil when they failed to win a single match and get out of the group for the first time since 1958.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Things improved under Sir Gareth Southgate, but still, nothing to show for it in 2018 and 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>60 years of hurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span>(Photo by Dan Mullan\/Getty Images)<\/span> --><\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>This is why it\u2019s funny to me how people misinterpret &#8220;It\u2019s Coming Home,&#8221; the iconic song by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seeds for the 1996 Euros. I was there growing up in England and I lived it. The song is less an arrogant call of arms but rather, in a quintessential English way, is about self-deprecation. It\u2019s about the fact that it actually NEVER comes home and victory for England has been distant since 1966, the last time the Three Lions tasted the success of lifting the World Cup and ANY kind of major silverware.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>&#8220;England always bottles it,&#8221; is the mantra.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>This was also the venue where Diego Maradona broke English fans\u2019 hearts after the &#8220;Hand of God&#8221; debacle, which also included one of the greatest goals ever created. England had not been here since.<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Allsport\/Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>But on Sunday night against Mexico, I saw something I had never seen before, and it\u2019s because of this squad and its manager.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Under Thomas Tuchel, the team has adopted his pragmatic, no-nonsense approach. The players ignore noise and focus on everything\u00a0<i>they<\/i> can control. If it enters a tough environment such as Mexico City and its altitude, it works with these forces of nature, not against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>These young men, after all, are now used to the pressures of being a modern-day footballer. From unwarranted abuse to overwhelming criticism, long seasons and travel, at relatively young ages, they have had to endure a tremendous amount of pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>But thanks to the work that started with Southgate and now enhanced by Tuchel, they are stronger than ever \u2014 this is a brotherhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span>(Photo by Andrew J. Clark\/ISI Photos\/ISI Photos via Getty Images)<\/span> --><\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>As a result, I witnessed the most heroic performance from England that I can remember. It was a match made of steel where the likes of Jude Bellingham, Jordan Pickford and Anthony Gordon played the best matches of their careers. Harry Kane lost his voice at the end. The aforementioned Bellingham and Ezri Konsa dropped to the floor at the final whistle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>It was a night of lions who fought against the hostile fans, the altitude, the weather and, if I am being perfectly honest, the referee. It was a physical and mental war where they also had to play with 10 men from the 56th minute, demanding this team to not just win, but to win from suffering.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The performance reminded me of one of my favorite quotes, by the late scientist and philosopher Viktor Frankl, &#8220;<i>what is to give light must endure burning.&#8221;<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>After the match, the England team and staff walked towards the fans, who withstood the rain and thunder, and the hostility of the home crowd, to see their team succeed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>And together, arm in arm, they all sang the Oasis classic &#8220;Wonderwall,&#8221; a newly found anthem for the team and country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>It was the perfect ending.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>And so now, as England now gets ready to swap the altitude of Mexico City for the humidity of Miami for a battle against a familiar foe in the giant Erling Haaland and his Norway, maybe, just maybe this team of heroes will be the one that saves me.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY The sound of lightning could be heard in the distance as the backdrop of Mexico City would turn into a dark, constantly evolving cloud of grey and blue. Animosity amongst both Mexican and English fans thickened inside the majestic Azteca stadium as a much-anticipated atmosphere between El Tri and the Three [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}