Henry Winter’s World Cup Diary, Day 34
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Jersey/Miami
A confession. I was in such a filthy mood when England lost to Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday, and like everyone just enraged by Thomas Tuchel’s handling of the second half, that I immediately changed plans and rerouted north to New York/New Jersey for the World Cup final. I couldn’t stomach the thought of watching England in the third-place play-off against France. Miami be damned.
Who wants to cover the game of shame? Who wants to rake over the ashes of England’s stay in North America after they’d self-immolated. Or rather Tuchel had set fire to their hopes of reaching the final with his confusing decisions. Wasted opportunities don’t come much bigger than England’s collapse within touching distance of a first World Cup final in 60 years.
So I went off in a huff, packed up my troubles in an old, fairly kitsch bag, and caught a flight to New Jersey on Thursday evening. When I woke up, still in a lousy mood, but looking out towards the uplifting Manhattan skyline, I came to my senses and realised I had to attend the wake in Miami and, first, listen to Tuchel’s explanations. Like many people suffering, I needed closure.
So, back to Newark, three-hour flight to Fort Lauderdale and cab to the stadium. Tuchel eventually turned up but little he said helped the understanding or eased the suffering. I shook off the rather entitled despondency only when listening to John Stones, who could be forgiven for thinking his England journey might begin and end with frustration in Florida. Stones was on the standby list for the 2014 World Cup, came out to Miami, took part in England training was then released home by Roy Hodgson.
The defender was adamant that his career was not ending here in the Sunshine State. Stones, 32, was insistent he would continue playing for England. But he was clearly hurting. Stones is successful, wealthy, and utterly devastated. He recalled in slightly haunted, halting tones how he is trying to put himself back together after Wednesday. It was “blurred”, Stones said. It was simply about him re-examining “scenarios in my head”, notably how could he have taken up “different positions”. The thought immediately went to his positioning for Lionel Messi’s cross that cleared him and was met by Lautaro Martinez for Argentina’s winner. “It’s a tough thing to digest or get over. Us as players can get quite fixated on anger or frustration, our personal circumstances. We are very quick to forget how proud I am of every single person in our camp, in our squad, the effort and sacrifice that goes into it that got us to this point, the love, belief and support from back home, the fans in the stadium. All the memories have been incredible.”
Stones paused, still emotional. “Our nature as people is we take things very personally and that’s why we are always striving for more. We were all of the same belief that we could win it. To go out in a semi-final hurts even more because we believed so much.” The room, which was actually the Miami Dolphins locker-room, filled with sympathy for Stones. We wished him good luck on his 95th appearance today. We could feel better about England because the players really care.
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Has there been a greater footballing figure in France than Didier Deschamps? It used to be Michel Platini but he’s had a difficulty or two. Zinedine Zidane won the World Cup alongside Deschamps in 1998, enjoyed a glittering club career, managed Real Madrid to three Champions League titles and now succeeds Deschamps as France’s head coach. But Deschamps has done the World Cup double, as player and manager (2018) which surely makes him the most significant figure in French football history.
He stands down after today’s third-place play-off with England. Deschamps was given a slight grilling in yesterday’s press conference by the French media. The semi-final loss to Spain continues to occupy much debate, especially as France were favourites for the whole competition.
The respect in which Deschamps is held within football was eloquently expressed by Thomas Tuchel yesterday. “Just unbelievable personality, unbelievable coach,” said England’s head coach of the man who will be in the neighbouring dug-out this afternoon. “He won everything as a player, won everything as a national team coach. His personality is such a humble, such a polite person, always a pleasure to see him, always a pleasure to meet him around football. Unbelievably respectful and nothing but the highest, highest respect.” Fine words. Deschamps deserves all the praise he’s getting.
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“COMMIT”, “BELIEVE”, “GRACE” and “MOTIVATE”. These are some of the qualities espoused for kids heading into the play area in terminal A at Newark Liberty airport in New Jersey. None of the pictures of a smiling Peppa Pig. This was more the locker-room of an ambitious college team. It’s all quite competitive and challenging for basically a couple of slides and a soft surface for them to fall on. These big words are spelled out on the floor in a mini “New Jersey Hall of Fame” that leads past a small stand of bleachers and into the slides and swings. Celebrated en route are local heroes like the sprinter Carl Lewis, who lived in Willingborough, New Jersey; gridiron star Eli Manning, who played for the New York Giants at East Rutherford where Sunday’s World Cup final is being played; and the legendary American football coach Vince Lombardi, who cut his coaching teeth in a New Jersey college. No pressure on the kids.
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