• Chronicle England gets into the final between history and blush

  • Protagonist The 'Sterling factor' beyond the arbitration controversy

England is round, like a ball. A compact, seamless soccer team, well managed by a gentleman, excellently defended, with many versatile attackers, and an 'in love' star. A country that hides its edges, gathered around the dream of those who invented this sport but have barely reigned. Now they can.

God saves the ball

, God saves the ball, not only the queen, because the king of his dreams is, today, round.

The classification of the

pros

for the final has caused an outbreak in the country that has not gone unnoticed by the

premier

Boris Johnson

: "

Southgate

and the team are the pride of the country. Bring the title home." Rather than bring it, it would be more correct to say "leave it at home", since England will play the final again on Sunday (9:00 p.m.-Telecinco) against Italy, at Wembley. Of the seven matches that he will play in the Eurocup, seven will have been played in his temple, a clear advantage in a strange tournament due to the design and circumstances of the pandemic. The dubious penalty over

Sterling

that led him to the final was signaled in a real cauldron of emotions by referee

Danny Makkelie

.

The atmosphere always plays.

The Euro choral was conceived eight years ago by

Michel Platini,

former UEFA president, as a tribute to the European construction project.

Paradoxically, Brexit is celebrated with a Eurosceptic at 10 Downing Street.

The world is more inscrutable like football.

The yes to Brexit in the referendum occurred precisely during the dispute of the last European Championship, in France, on June 23, 2016. Four days later, England was eliminated in the second round by Iceland (1-2).

The

pros'

only goal

came from a

declining

Wayne Rooney

, a metaphor for a self-defeating team in the past.

Five years later,

Harry Kane

means the opposite and Gareth Southgate is a model selector who does not feed the tabloids.

Of the 'WaGs', women or girlfriends of footballers, we know little or nothing.

England has completed in that time the process of a difficult exit from the European Union, but its football, on the other hand, has known how to import the best of the continent's game, be it in characters, technicians or players, and in

know-how

to dominate the era after the

Messi-Cristiano

duopoly

.

Southgate is one of its beneficiaries, who points out the influence that

Pep Guardiola's

arrival

in the Premier has had.

The Southgate baton

He is an atypical coach in England, far from the scandals that haunted

Bobby Robson

, the extravagances of the 'playboy-coach'

Sven-Goran Eriksson

, the first foreigner to lead the English, or the obsessions of

Fabio Capello

. Former Middlesbrough defender, not a Premier one, his career was marked by the failure of a penalty in the semi-final against Germany, in the Eurocup that England organized in 1996. That error prevented the final to which he has now brought to the national team in another role. The feat therefore has a redemptive value.

Forged in the technical structure of the Football Association (FA), Southgate, 50, had a stint in the U21 team, an experience that the coach considers fundamental, although it predates the explosion of precocious talent that he has now gathered in the team. It was in 2017 when England won the World Cup and played the final of the U17 European Championship, both against Spain.

Jadon Sancho and Foden

were part of that team. She also prevailed in the European sub'19, led by

Mount and Sterling

.

He won that same year in the U20 World Cup and was third in the U21.

The new generation, much more versatile in the profiles, is the product of the evolution of work in the clubs, but also of the bets for the formation of the FA itself.

One of them is Saint George's Park, a splendid sports city.

Southgate, in fact,

was a low-profile

FA

coach

who took over the selection on an interim basis after the failure of Euro 2016, waiting to appoint a starter to the job.

The first results gave him a chance.

The qualification for the World Cup in Russia, in 2018, consolidated it, with a radical change in the game.

He reached the semifinals, in which they fell to Croatia in extra time, and left his mark on his way of directing, impeccable with his vest.

VARIETY OF OFFENSIVE RESOURCES

The Eurocup means the maturation of your project, especially for the stability and security of the team, given that in attack you have a surplus.

In fact, at the beginning of the tournament he had been reproached for not using more offensive arguments and for opting for a double containment pivot such as that formed by

Rice and Calvin Phillips

, one of the new additions, from

Marcelo Bielsa's

Leeds

.

His work, however, has been enormous, without neglecting his offensive projection, as he demonstrated in the first phase.

But the key pair in the defensive facet has been the one formed by

Maguire and Stones

, two powerful centrals in both areas.

The prominence of the first has been colossal.

England have only conceded one goal in the entire tournament, already set pieces, already in the semifinal against Denmark.

In attack, he has combined the overflow of Sterling, fixed and decisive from the start, with the emergence of Kane, a nine that is much more than shot and goal.

Every movement of yours is an earthquake.

The catalog of offensive stickers is obscene (

Foden, Mount, Grealish, Sancho

...), but not all of them fit.

This success, yet to be crowned, parallels that of the clubs, a Champions League champion (Chelsea) and three finalists from the two European tournaments.

England rules the football field and defends it outside, as demonstrated by the demonstrations of fans that broke the Super League.

The owners of the

Big Six could

n't hold out.

Those same fans will be able to drink in pubs for one more hour on Sunday, despite the advance of the Delta strain of Covid, and, if they get vaccinated, win the two Wembley tickets raffled by the mayor of London,

Sadiq Khan

.

The ball does not have, today, deniers in England.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • sports

  • England National Soccer Team

  • football

  • Euro 2020

EurocupThe 'Sterling factor' beyond the arbitration controversy

England knocks Germany down: God save Sterling

EurocupA fan, in serious condition after falling from the Wembley stands

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