Why England's careful preparation shows they can win their first-ever World Cup on foreign soil | OneFootball

While there are more-fancied contenders to win this World Cup, England have planned meticulously and might just have timed their run perfectly

When the Lionesses won the European Championships in 2022, a year after the men had lost the delayed Euro 2020 final to Italy, they lifted the country’s first major trophy at senior level since that mythic day back in 1966.

Discounting finishing runners-up at Women’s Euro '84 comprising only four teams, England had still, though, never reached a major final abroad.

Since 2022, bang. Three in a row. In Australia and New Zealand, the Lionesses reached the final of the 2023 World Cup. In Germany, the men reached the final at Euro 2024. In Switzerland, the women won Euro 2025. England have reached the final of all of the last six men’s, women’s and U21s European Championships. Undeniable progress, yet a foreign World Cup continues to elude.

And so to the American Dream. England are among the most-fancied contenders to win this summer’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico but are sufficiently below France, Spain, Argentina and Portugal in the thinking of many neutrals that they might just float perfectly under the radar. In astronomy, the Goldilocks zone is the precise distance from a star that a planet would have to occupy to sustain life. This tournament may have fallen at a time when England occupy the Goldilocks zone — the right chemistry, the right quality, the right amount of pressure.

Kevin Keegan hardly featured at World Cup '82 due to a chronic back problem, Frank Lampard missed Euro 2012 with a thigh injury, yet Thomas Tuchel had a free hit at naming his 26-man squad, unhampered by injury concerns.

England’s German manager named two players in every position plus a third goalkeeper and three wildcards — Dan Burn, the Harry Maguire-style aerial threat; Eberechi Eze, the livewire playmaker; and Saudi-based Ivan Toney of Al Ahli, the Plan C striker with a penalty specialism and experience of playing in heat.

Tuchel has shown all the hallmarks of a coach who totally grasps the unique challenges of international football, despite this being some of his players’ fourth World Cup but his very first.

Within the FA, a phrase has been bouncing around between staff: that this supersized World Cup “will be won as much in the planning as the playing”. The first 48-team World brings immense logistical challenges and covers a vast expanse of land. It is just about the largest-scale event in human history, sport or otherwise.

England are well-prepared and cutting-edge. Their 11-day training camp in Miami was planned so players could acclimatise to the hottest and most humid of the 16 host cities. They have been wearing ‘Whoop smart bands’ that monitor heart rate, sleep quality, and can be warn in games for the first time. Every marginal gain.

Having beaten New Zealand 1-0 in Tampa and ramped things up a notch with Wednesday’s 3-0 victory over Costa Rica in Orlando, the less-involved players face amateur side Miami United in a stop-start training-ground game behind closed doors on Thursday. The squad then have a day and a half of time off before flying from Florida to Kansas City on Saturday for the tournament itself.

Kansas is in the heart of America, and the beating heart of England’s World Cup campaign. While Argentina and the Netherlands were awarded the city’s best training bases by FIFA because they each have a fixture there, the FA did well to snaffle up Swope Soccer Village, the third-choice training ground, and a secluded 54-room hotel nearby, where permanent hotel staff have been furloughed for a month as Team England move in and do things their own meticulous way.

Tuchel has shown all the hallmarks of a coach who totally grasps the unique challenges of international football, despite this being his first World Cup

In this World Cup of managing minutes, of an extra ‘round of 32’ knockout game, of punishing heat and crossing time zones, almost every player could have their use at some stage. Tuchel must keep them all onside, ready to be called upon. England’s finishers can be as important as their starters.

They qualified with maximum points yet made a sluggish start under Tuchel. Then they rattled five goals past Serbia without reply. Belgrade was England’s ground zero; it was the night when everything clicked on the pitch and Tuchel detected camaraderie off it — the memory that sits at the forefront of his mind, a constant reference point.

He has a love affair with his captain. The idea of ever building a team around one player is enough to give plenty of football purists cold shivers, though might it not be precisely the way to go when England boast a player quite so extraordinary, quite this much better than everyone else, in quite such stonking form as Harry Kane? England’s bid to win the World Cup is a team effort but tantamount to the science of teasing out Peak Kane. Tuchel will surround Kane with complementary players, “not the biggest names”.

“Very often, you have to go close to winning [in order] to be able to learn how to win,” his predecessor Sir Gareth Southgate said last week. “We’ve been to two finals; so many of the barriers to winning have been passed.” This World Cup campaign, right from the moment Tuchel was hired, has always been about taking that last — the hardest — step.

A misfiring 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo might not pose a threat, but Portugal do. France and Spain are perennially a good bet; between them, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have won all but one of the eight previous World Cups held in the Americas.

England mustn’t cower. Winning will require bucking all trends and breaking new ground; it comes with the territory. The last World Cup in the United States, in 1994, was also the last time England failed to qualify.

A rather rosier picture this summer. They have a Champions League-winning manager who appears to have fallen in love with the job. A new-look defence has evolved beyond Kyle Walker, Luke Shaw and, yes, Maguire, but conceded zero goals in qualifying and plays behind what has the makings of being one of this World Cup’s most effective midfield trios: Declan Rice, Elliot Anderson, and one of Jude Bellingham or Morgan Rogers. The world’s most lethal striker leads the line and says he is in “physically, mentally, the best shape of my career”.

In this tournament short of a standout favourite, if they get a sprinkle here and there of the luck you always need, maybe, just maybe, it will be England.