"Very often, you have to go close to winning to be able to learn how to win," Gareth Southgate said last week. England have been to two finals. The barriers, supposedly, have been falling. This summer in North America is about taking the one step that's always been just out of reach.
The trajectory is hard to argue with. Three consecutive major finals — the 2023 Women's World Cup, Euro 2024, and now Euro 2025, which the Lionesses just won in Switzerland. England have reached the final of all six of the last men's, women's and U21s European Championships. And yet, a World Cup on foreign soil? Still zero from six attempts at a major final abroad before 2022. That's the gap Thomas Tuchel is being asked to close.
The Goldilocks moment
There's a genuine argument that England have landed at exactly the right point in their cycle. They're not the outright favourite — France, Spain, Argentina and Portugal all carry more weight in most assessments — which means they avoid the suffocating pressure of being hunted. The squad Tuchel named is fit. No Keegan-style injury cloud, no Lampard absence. A clean 26-man selection, two players deep in every position, three wildcards: Dan Burn as the aerial option, Eberechi Eze as the creative spark, and Ivan Toney — Saudi-based, penalty specialist, heat-acclimatised — as the Plan C striker.
That last detail matters more than it sounds. This 48-team World Cup is logistically unlike anything the sport has staged. Vast distances, punishing heat, an extra knockout round. Within the FA, they've been saying it plainly: this tournament "will be won as much in the planning as the playing." England took that seriously. The Miami training camp was picked specifically to replicate the heat and humidity of the toughest host city. Players have been wearing Whoop smart bands tracking heart rate and sleep — devices now approved for use during matches for the first time.
Their base in Kansas City — Swope Soccer Village, a secluded hotel with permanent staff furloughed for a month — has been set up to run entirely on England's terms. FIFA handed Argentina and the Netherlands the city's top training facilities. England settled for third choice and made it their own.
It still comes back to Kane
Tuchel has been clear about his philosophy: surround Harry Kane with complementary players, "not the biggest names." The midfield trio of Declan Rice, Elliot Anderson, and either Jude Bellingham or Morgan Rogers is built to serve a striker who, by his own assessment, is in "physically, mentally, the best shape of my career." Kane's underlying numbers across the last two seasons back that claim up. England's World Cup bid is a team effort in structure and a Kane-optimization exercise in practice.
The new-look defence — beyond Kyle Walker, Luke Shaw, and Harry Maguire — conceded zero goals across qualifying. Five goals against Serbia without reply remains the defining moment of the Tuchel era, the night the manager says the pieces clicked both on and off the pitch. That's the reference point he keeps returning to.
The obstacles are real. France and Spain don't have off years at tournaments. Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay have won seven of the eight World Cups held in the Americas. A Ronaldo-less Portugal are still dangerous. England will need luck, and they'll need to beat at least one of the genuine heavyweights when it counts.
The last World Cup held in the United States, in 1994, was the last time England didn't even qualify. Thirty-two years later, they arrive as dark horses with a Champions League-winning manager, a fully fit squad, and the most meticulous tournament preparation the FA has ever assembled. Whether that's enough is the only question that matters now.
