Gareth Southgate, the manager of England, said that his team didn’t have enough “zip” against the USA on Friday. As expected, Gregg Berhalter’s team was a worthy opponent.
The Three Lions could only draw 0-0 in Group B of the World Cup, which meant they didn’t get the chance to move on to the next round.
Still, England’s fate was in their own hands, and Southgate chose to stay positive after the game, even though it was clear that England had lost.
“The game was exactly what I thought it would be. Southgate told ITV that the opposition was “tough, a good opponent, and very, very athletic.”
“After playing so well against Iran, I knew it would be hard to repeat that performance, so I’m happy with how hard the players worked. Some of our play in the final third could have been a little bit better, but we showed great resiliency against a team that kept asking us questions. We also did a good job of controlling the game from the back, but we didn’t have a clear chance to break it open.
If you ask Southgate what was lacking, he’ll say, “I believe a little bit of zip. We didn’t quite have the same zip.” But that’s going to happen. This is a football tournament, and we’re not going to cruise through it. To get a result, you have to show different things.
“The game against Wales will be very different. We played a game today against a team that gave us a lot of trouble. I’m happy with how we built from the back because they make it so hard to build. We’ve had trouble with that in the past, and our two center-backs, Harry Maguire and John Stones, were fantastic.
“They were in charge of the game, and I don’t think people know how good they are. They both did a great job defending the box.”
When asked if this was a good point or a missed chance, Gareth Southgate said, “Yeah, for me. Today’s silver medal was significant because it advanced us in the qualification process. We will win the group if we win our last game. The goal is to get out of the group in three games. In our last two tournaments, we did it in two games. It’s not reasonable to think that will always happen.”
