Harry Kane’s first visit to Foxborough doesn’t result in any Tom Brady-like heroics
FOXBOROUGH — Harry Kane finally made it into the house that his US football hero Tom Brady built on Tuesday.
Unfortunately for him, he never stumbled on to any of Brady’s stash of late-game magic tricks.
Even with a splendid chance late four minutes left in regulation time in the second half, England’s best striker wound up empty like everyone else in the 0-0 group stage draw with Ghana.
The draw does not spoil England’s chance of advancing out of the group stage.
The team is still very much alive, with a chance to finish first after winning, 4-2, in Game 1 vs. Croatia and a game against Panama remaining.
But the scoreless match did not fulfill what would have been a compelling storyline for Kane, who is not just an admirer and friend of Brady but is also a massive fan of US football.
After a header from teammate Nico O’Reilly glanced off the crossbar and right at Kane’s feet about 10 yards from an open net, Kane skied the ball into the stands.
He sank to his knees and clasped his cheeks in disbelief before rejoining the ultimately fruitless quest with every other player on the field.
Kane, who had two other shots, was not made available after the game to talk about the effort, the outcome, or, equally likely, what his experience was like in Foxborough.
He did, after all, meet Pat Patriot before the game and was presented with a No. 9 “Kane” Patriots jersey.
Instead, some of the postgame talk centered on whether or not the team could win without Kane scoring.
“We rely on Harry because we can, but we don’t over-rely on him,” said English coach Thomas Tuchel.
Eberechi Eze said that it was important not to let the perception of Kane being an all-important figure in England’s attack alter the reality.
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“I think it makes it look like that because he scores so many goals, and he’s that effective,” said Eze. “But for sure, we’ve got so much talent, so much creativity and options to score. But of course, it helps having someone that’s as incredible as him. I wouldn’t look too much past that.”
As England’s all-time leading scorer with 81 goals — he scored twice against Croatia — and still only 32 years old, Kane is not close to hanging up his cleats.
But when he does, he is reportedly all in on at least exploring the possibility of becoming an NFL kicker, like the Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey.
Kane’s fandom with Brady and the Patriots began, according to The Athletic, from watching “The Brady 6” documentary at the age of 17 when he was recognized as a good, not great, soccer player.
The knowledge that six other quarterbacks went in the 2000 draft before the Patriots picked Brady resonated with the teenager.
“When I was younger people didn’t always believe in me, they didn’t think I would make it to where I am now,” Kane said in an interview with The Independent in 2017. “It is about that self-belief, that self-drive, that has got me to where I am now.”
Kane has played for Bayern Munich, the perennial powerhouse in the Bundesliga, since 2023 and already is the seventh-highest goal-scorer in club history.
With Tottenham Hotspur before that, he scored 280 times to become the club’s all-time leader and second-highest goal scorer in the Premier League.
During his Spurs stint, an injured Kane visited the Super Bowl in Atlanta in 2019 and attended a party afterward with the team, according to the Athletic.
Since then, Brady and Kane have kept in touch, with Brady dropping by the English training hotel in Kansas City, Mo., to wish him well.
Those wishes, plus Kane’s first-time visit to Foxborough, did not translate into the kind of storybook ending Brady fans, including Kane, are used to.
Read more Harry Kane, England silenced by a stout, joyous Ghana group in Foxborough
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