Fifa World Cup: England are ‘hungry, ready to go’ in semi-final against Argentina
Head coach Thomas Tuchel says finals are ‘draining and nerve-racking’ but make him ‘feel alive’ before highly-anticipated clash in Atlanta
The fact that England were delayed arriving in Atlanta from their Kansas City training base on Tuesday was indicative of the hectic nature of their World Cup; travelling around 15,000 miles to play in six cities across two countries, and surviving a pair of exhausting knockout matches to reach this semi-final against Argentina in Atlanta.
Sitting on the dais in a sprawling, jam-packed media room in the magnificent Mercedes-Benz Stadium 1½ hours later than scheduled, Thomas Tuchel, the head coach, revealed his unique way of escaping the madness.
“Sometimes, you just go on a bike, you just need a big parking lot and an ice cream in your hands for 15 minutes and then you feel 15 years old,” Tuchel told the South China Morning Post.
“You enjoy a warm summer evening with an ice cream and you reconnect to the beauty of that feeling we all have inside us, and that’s sometimes all it needs.”
It was a nice antidote to the repeated talk of pressure, of the burden of trying to end England’s 60-year wait to win their second World Cup and to the darker undertones around this fixture; the references to the deadly Falklands War 44 years ago, when UK forces resisted Argentinian attempts to seize the South American territory.
“It was sad, but it’s nothing to do with today or tomorrow,” Lionel Scaloni, the Argentina head coach, said. “We remember the people we lost, but the players here have nothing to do with what happened many years ago.
“It’s just a game of football.”