Henry Winter’s World Cup Diary, Day 29
Miami to Kansas City
I know it shouldn’t be high on the list of what makes a great World Cup but I particularly enjoyed a night out in Miami on Friday, meeting England fans in a couple of lively bars on Miami Beach. Miami by night, even with a brief thunderstorm, joined Mexico City (fun, vibrant, mad) and New Jersey (villagey bars) in my top three nights out with England fans in this tournament. The age-range was 35 to 60-odd, the club affiliations from Wimbledon to Manchester United, Leeds United to Newcastle United and Chelsea.
All were passionate England fans, and all had endured so many wretched times with England: the wasteland of the 1970s, the frustrations of the 80s, the flickering candles of hope in the 90s before they get cruelly blown out. All these fans lived through a lot of that. Thomas Tuchel called it an emotional rollercoaster. But a rollercoaster offers a series of highs. England haven’t had that until Gareth Southgate took over and now Tuchel.
They remember tuning in to events at the Azteca in 1986. Now they are banishing spectres from the past. These fans remember Turin, Saint-Etienne, Charleroi, Shizuoka, Lisbon and Gelsenkirchen. They remember not qualifying for Euro 2008, stinking South Africa out, more penalty purgatory in Kyiv, and being home from Brazil before the malaria tablets even kicked in. They recall with a shudder the horrors of Nice. So when they see Jude Bellingham playing with this power and fun and hunger, they believe England have changed. And now have a chance.
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England have been designated the “home” team in Atlanta and will play in white. So that means Argentina in their away strip. Blue. The one they wore for the Hand of God and the Goal of the Century at the Azteca in 1986. The one they wore in Saint-Etienne for the dismissal of David Beckham and then the expulsion of England on penalties from France ’98. Be interesting to see who gets Lionel Messi’s shirt at full-time. It may be a respectful exchange with Jude Bellingham, talents acknowledging each other. Yet given that Diego Maradona’s shirt from the Azteca was auctioned for £7m, Messi’s shirt from his final World Cup will be worth collecting even more.
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Footballing debates run wild in newspapers, magazines and on phone-ins. Social media speeds up exchanges even more. Consider this reply I received at the Miami Stadium. “Really? Saved bye [sic] the referee. Hope you win the WC now. But feel we got robbed today.” This was the response of the distinguished former Norway international, Alfie Haaland, after the game to my half-time post on X lauding Bellingham’s impact.
I wrote, “Odegaard was beginning to run the game. ‘England’s going home,’ sang the Norway fans. Bellingham decides that’s not going to happen. Takes over, takes responsibility, makes and takes a chance. What a player he is. Best I’ve seen in 35 years covering England. 1-1 h-t”. It was a fair enough take at the break, and the main reaction was whether Bellingham was better than Paul Gascoigne. (Yes was my reply because of his stronger mentality).
Haaland Sr, watching on in Miami, was understandably frustrated by Norway’s exit from the World Cup and the manner of it. He felt the French referee, Clement Turpin, had been overly sympathetic towards England. His son Erling was penalised for a push on Elliot Anderson which did look a two-handed shove, even if Anderson went down slightly easily. VAR intervened and ruled out Torbjorn Heggem’s effort on goal.
Norway also complained that Bellingham’s equaliser was aided by a deflection of spider-cam. FIFA’s Snicko signalled no contact. But, at the very least, FIFA needs to work with their cameramen to ensure the wires don’t come too low.
I knew what the reaction would be to Haaland’s reply, and saw England fans already piling on, so kept my response diplomatic. The Haalands, and the Norwegian squad and support in general, are such impressive people, who have added so much to the World Cup, that it’s important to be respectful and not trigger a further pile-on. So I replied, “Norway excellent first half. England dragged back into it by Bellingham. No consolation but your players and supporters did your great country proud”. And they had.
I sent it as a reply, rather than quote-tweet it, which would send it to 1.1m followers and, from painful experience, intensify the exchange and made it even more public. It still got 5m views. Personally, I didn’t think Turpin was poor and players make mistakes, too. Just imagine if Alexander Sorloth had squared to Alife’s lad with Norway 1-0 up?
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A group of England fans who’d travelled over from the UK were sitting high up in the Miami Stadium. They looked around at their neighbours sitting there in Three Lions shirts. “Stand up if you come from England,” they began chanting to make a point about level of fandom. Of course, many of those around them were ex-pats, Americans with English heritage, simply liking the team of Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane or Premier League fans. It’s a compliment to England in a way.
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Amazing how suddenly perspective sweeps in. I was struggling with a vending machine at KC airport, the ones where you have to punch the number of the product, pay and hope the right one falls into the basket. This young guy helped out and then asked about my accent. So I asked his. He was KC born but his parents were from Micronesia. He was flying there for the first time. His father had passed, been buried in Micronesia and he was going off to pay tribute and homage.
Catch up on the rest of Henry Winter’s World Cup Diary here
