England also plays horrible games

• Direct This is how we live it

• Group B Classification

The World Cup is a place conducive to exaggeration.

England played brilliantly against Iran and helped spread the feeling that, this time, they can stop being losers.

It had to be

, their selector, who brought down the soufflé.

He did it before the media, demanding prudence.

But also on the pitch, allowing his players to complete a horrific match against the United States.

Yes, such a draw at nothing was one of the most disappointing duels of this first phase.

The writer is forced to divert attention from the ball, there are so many surreal situations that occur in a World Cup that it is difficult to focus again later.

A flag planted on the green grass of the field claimed to save the planet (

) in a country, Qatar, where the air conditioning cannons make you think you are in Siberia, not in the desert.

Before the game began in that stadium that is a giant tent (Al Bayt, in Al Khor), a burly security agent took a tiny American pennant from a journalist.

They were the same colors that midfielder

had badly dyed his hair , who had no qualms about drying the sweat on a photographer's dungarees.

A few meters further, behind the goalkeeper's goal

, hung an Athletic flag.

And a fan dressed as

was trying to converse with a toothless, exhausted England fan, perhaps because it was the first time he had had to sing

on a football field without the bitter reflux of beer going up his throat. .

It was convenient, however, to look back at the ball because the young United States team, despite waking up with a certain timidity, tried to climb for a while on the beards of an England that had nothing to do with that of the debut.

Either because no one noticed

, because

and

, the center-backs, spent the night passing the ball around, or because, beyond what

could create on the wing, the Southgate team's sense of danger was nil.

The only trace of the

selection was a shot from

parried by Turner at the end of the first act

The Americans, at least, made it clear that England has enough defensive deficiencies to be taken into account.

, the great reference, at least was around the goal.

The Chelsea attacker fired off the crossbar without moving his feet from the pitch.

But little else happened.

Just a header off

in added time on his only chance of the night.

The public dismissed everyone between boos.

And maybe they fell short.

England will have to settle their classification against Wales.

Although the attention will fall on Iran, which could throw the United States, its close enemy, out of the World Cup.

Where football does not arrive, let geopolitics do.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• United States Soccer Team

• England Soccer Team