England clearly has the talent to bring the World Cup trophy home. Can it finally weather the pressure to?
FOXBOROUGH — Declan Rice is a ways from retirement age, but he’s happy to be collecting Harry Kane stories to relate to the next generation.
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“For me, he’s one of those players you’ll be telling the kids about, how you got to play with Harry Kane,” Rice said. “Fortunate to have him as captain — how he leads by example every day in training, it’s no surprise the goals he scores in training and in the England shirt. Very lucky to be playing with him.”
Kane is England’s star. And Rice is among the leaders of the Three Lions’ supporting cast. Rice, 27, has been directing the England midfield since 2019, when he switched from the Republic of Ireland. Rice is set to earn his 75th England cap when the Three Lions meet Ghana in a Group L game at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
“I first came into England, it was always on merit,” Rice said. “I was in good form for West Ham and have managed to play every season at such a consistent level. Playing for England is the biggest privilege in football.”
As an 18-year-old West Ham United midfielder, Rice played his third and final senior international for Ireland in a 2-1 win over the US in Dublin in June 2018. A few months later, Gareth Southgate named him to the England team.
“One of the very best footballers in the world,” said Thomas Tuchel, who took over from Southgate. “You see a humble footballer, ready to be a team player, ready every day to give energy to the group, give quality to the group. And willing to learn every day throughout his career, makes him one of the very best at the moment. I’m proud to be his coach.”
Rice’s consistency, along with set piece threat, helped Arsenal capture the Premier League and reach the Champions League final last season. In England’s World Cup opener, he set up a Kane goal in a 4-2 victory over Croatia, then combined with Elliot Anderson to steady the midfield in the second half.
“That’s been the message from the boss [Tuchel], we have to build on that second half performance,” Rice said during a press conference Monday. “[Ghana] is a real threat and if we’re not 100 percent we can be punished, for sure. Ghana is a team that brings strength, pace and they want to catch us out on the counterattack. We have to be ready. Having played against a lot of their players, we know what to expect.”
The Black Stars are expected to have midfielder Thomas Partey, a former Rice teammate with Arsenal, who missed their 1-0 win over Panama due to a visa issue. (He has been accused of rape in England, and was not allowed to enter Canada.)
The Three Lions were accused of succumbing to pressure and underachieving under Southgate. Tuchel has attempted to tone things down.
“I heard about it, and I feel, of course, the excitement and the pressure,” Tuchel said. “But I feel we have so many winners, and so many players who are experienced to cope with the pressure on the next level, on the stage of the World Cup. It can feel quite emotional to represent your country and play in an England shirt, I get that, and it’s a beautiful thing for our fans to know that it means so much to our players to represent and play for the Three Lions. Because it means a lot to them.
“There are emotions; you can, at times, feel the tension and feel the pressure. I hope we can cope with it and accept it and turn it around.”
Tuchel noted one of his squad’s key principles is to treat every situation as 0-0.
“The next pass counts, the next action, the next tackle is important, the next movement is what counts,” he said. “We have the spirit to help each other out. I think no one’s afraid any more to do mistakes. Mistakes are part of this beautiful game and it’s just a matter of how you react to mistakes and how you help each other out and cover for each other.
“From there, it’s easier to cope with the pressure and maybe embrace the pressure and see it as something beautiful.”
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Ghana’s Carlos Queiroz, coaching in his fifth World Cup, brought Portugal to Foxboro Stadium for the 1992 US Cup, a 2-0 loss to Ireland before a crowd of 41,227. During the tournament, Queiroz encountered former University of Hartford goalkeeper Danny Gaspar, who became his goalkeeper coach for several teams, and is now an assistant in his fourth World Cup.
Gaspar helped boost the careers of several keepers, including FC Porto’s Vitor Baia, who had been victimized by Steve Staunton’s “Olimpico” off an Ireland corner kick.
Queiroz’s last meeting with England ended in a 6-2 loss for Iran in the 2022 World Cup.
“Four years in football is like a century in football,” Queiroz said. “We never lose; we win or we learn. We learned a couple lessons that day. I don’t want to talk about that any more, because it is history. All games are different, different environments. Yes, the reputation and prestige of results in the past are significant, when they are written in the press. But they cannot win games. Memories and reputations cannot win games. So, tomorrow will be another story.
“England has good players — experienced, very competitive, intense. We know we have to bring our strengths to the field. They have Three Lions on their shirt, we have 33 million lions [Ghana’s population] to fight.”
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