why the USA and England raced as equals at the World Cup – Corriere.it

The first time the United States beat the British was at the 1950 World Cup. When the news agencies gave the result, 0-1, many thought it was a mistake. The English side decided the world was wrong and announced a 10-1 victory for England.

This basic disbelief always been true ball and chain of American football. It always remained the sport of others, of Latinos, of immigrants, of the poor class. And he didn’t bring something always fundamental to America, the pride of winning. A great nation cannot play to look at itself, it must have a strong sense. To find it, they mixed the ball with the oval rugby ball for a long time. American football was born, but soccer was marginalized.

Many things have changed today, beating England is still difficult, but you can run on equal footing. Football is the most popular sport at school level, the girls thought to win. It’s not such a big surprise if Americans and Brits today run nearly evenly matched. They have the same job, the same modern understanding of the game, in fact once again they gradually canceled each other out in a game that was not beautiful, but vital, with few shots on goal, a fairly spectacular vertical game.

More was expected of England than Pulisic and Adams had long apprehended. Instead, he suffered in midfield and confirmed little order of play. It was not a useless game, there was indeed good football, many Americans also play in the Premier League, the quality of the organization on the pitch has always been high, truly professional. Neymar’s injury that seems serious falls on the whole. This takes away a lot from Brazil and the entire World Cup. N behind him you know a good substitute.

Even such a rapid exit by Qatar, which has not even entered the tournament yet, was hardly imaginable. Perhaps this is normal, but Qatar still has an acceptable Fifa ranking, around 50th place. But they always seemed excited, like out of place. Maybe it really was.