World Cup games mean more. England have only ever played 80 games in the finals, which is to say, not much more than two Premier League seasons in the 76 years since they first entered. Those games draw huge audiences: more than 17 million in the UK watched Saturday’s win over Norway, even though it was after midnight by the time it finished. In most countries, World Cup matches are more discussed, more analysed, than any other in sport, perhaps any other cultural phenomenon. They are rare moments that bring vast numbers of people together, hoping, agonising, celebrating, commiserating. They become part of the culture.
Moments from games become touchstones. Allusions can be made to games from six decades ago in the reasonable expectation of being understood. That has a strange, distorting effect. Far too much is read into individual games, in a way it just wouldn’t be in a league game. Senne Lammens’s error that cost Belgium the quarter-final against Spain was watched by far more people than watch the average Manchester United game. There is not another match in three or four days that would mean Lammens’s mistake would be readily forgotten. It will always be part of his story, even if it subsequently becomes about redemption with a brilliant display in some future World Cup.
The scarcity of games is part of the story. Each one matters. Which is why the suggestions, now happily shelved, that the World Cup should be played every two years must be resisted. Less is definitely more. But because the history is so familiar, because it is so present, it means that every country is to some extent playing against ghosts of its own past. Psychology matters far more in World Cup football than in any other form of the game.
Spain have only ever played in one World Cup semi-final before, which they won 1-0 against Germany in 2010. It was a classic performance of control, grinding their opponents down before Carles Puyol scored a 73rd-minute header. That in itself is a mark of their long history of underachievement up to Euro 2008. They’ve reached the semi-final of the Euros on six occasions, winning five of them. They won four of the five major finals they’ve been in. They’re good in the latter stages of tournaments. But the final they lost, in 1984, was to France, their opponents in Tuesday’s semi. And they also lost to France in a memorable Euro 2000 quarter-final, when Raúl missed a late penalty that would have levelled it at 2-2.
But France have their demons too, especially in semi-finals. The 1982 game in Seville ranks as perhaps the most traumatic night in their footballing history. With the score at 1-1 and an hour played, the France substitute Patrick Battiston was the victim of a horrendous foul by the West Germany goalkeeper Toni Schumacher. He was knocked unconscious, broke his jaw and three ribs and lost two teeth. France went 3-1 up in extra-time, but on a hot night they paid for the fact that they effectively had one sub fewer. West Germany came back, levelled, and won in the World Cup’s first penalty shootout. France then lost to West Germany again in the semi-final four years later. Three successive semi-final successes perhaps have eased anxieties – but the nature of demons is that they rise unbidden.
And of course, whatever history France and Spain share is nothing compared to that of England and Argentina. From Bobby Charlton’s goal in 1962 to the sending off of Antonio Rattín in 1966, to the “Hand of God” in 1986, to David Beckham’s red card in 1998 to Michael Owen’s collapse over Mauricio Pochettino’s leg in 2002, there is plenty of history. The two sides haven’t met since Geneva in 2005, a remarkable game in which both sides seemed to forget it was only a friendly, producing a classic in which Juan Román Riquelme looked to have inspired Argentina to victory only for Owen to score two goals in the final five minutes to give England the spoils.
Memories of 1998 and 2002 were clearly fresh back then. Two decades later, with Argentinians a prominent feature of the Premier League, and the Falklands conflict and “Hand of God” that much further in the past, it may be that the animosity has lost some of that sting, but the nature of the rivalry goes back much deeper than that. There is always an Oedipal frisson when England and Argentina meet. Their first encounter, in 1951, was previewed in the Argentinian press almost entirely in the terms of pupils taking on the master, the quasi-colonial power who had given them the sport. Something of that dynamic – albeit now, obviously, of extremely accomplished former pupils – still lingers.
And England, of course, have their traumas from semi-finals past, from Turin and the penalty shootout defeat to West Germany in 1990 and from Moscow and the collapse against Croatia in 2018. In this tournament they have put behind them part of the “Hand of God” pathology by winning at the Azteca. The next step would be to beat Argentina in a knockout game.
Trivia question
With two goals against Norway in the World Cup quarter-final, England’s Jude Bellingham became the sixth player in the men’s tournament’s history to have consecutive multi-goal games in the knockout stage. Which of the following players has not accomplished that feat?
a) Pelé
b) Diego Maradona
c) Just Fontaine
d) Garrincha
On this day…
If it hadn’t been for the Wall Street crash, and if it hadn’t snowed quite so much, the opening game of the 1930 World Cup might have been played at the new Estadio Centenario. As it was, with the finishing touches still being applied to the 69,000-capacity arena, the first ever World Cup games were staged simultaneously at two smaller Montevideo stadiums, the 20,000-capacity Estadio Parque Central and the 10,000-capacity Estadio Pocitos.
It was the Pocitos that had the honour of hosting the first World Cup goal as France beat Mexico 4-1. Just 19 minutes had been played when the goalkeeper Alex Thépot played the ball long for Augustin Chantrel; he helped it on to Ernest Liberati and he cut it back for Lucien Laurent to score with a controlled volley. Chantrel, a right-half, had to play the final hour in goal after a head injury to Thépot but France still won 4-1. El Día was not impressed, saying the game “completely disappointed the public.”
At the Parque Central, the USA beat Belgium 3-0 but El Diario saw little of quality, dismissing the US’s counterattacking as “monotonous and sometimes childish”. The US nevertheless won their group to reach the semi-final.
Live event
On Thursday night, join Jonathan Wilson, Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Barney Ronay live from their sold-out show at Bowery Ballroom. Book livestream tickets here.
Around the World Cup
The ad machine: how David Beckham conquered America
World Cup 2026 power rankings: who leads the pack as semi-finals loom?
Spain’s Mikel Merino enjoys happy knack of scoring late winners
US watch
The US crashed out of the World Cup, losing 4-1 to Belgium in a match defined by a near-complete lack of competitiveness almost from the opening whistle.
Jeff Rueter writes about the challenges to come over the next three years as the US builds toward the 2030 World Cup, while Leander Schaerlaeckens and Alexander Abnos take stock of the US’s World Cup (Leander is fairly positive, Alexander is a bit more doom and gloom).
Finally, Pablo Iglesias Maurer takes a look at Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure as head coach, and speculates whether that loss to Belgium was his last with the program.
Trivia answer
The answer is c) Just Fontaine. Though he holds the World Cup record for goals scored in a single tournament with 13 in 1958, and scored in every knockout-stage match, he only scored once in a 5-2 loss to Brazil in the semi-final.
