England’s Happy To Keep Its Head Down For Now

It's almost time for the World Cup. Before the tournament, we'll be previewing each of the top 15 teams by FIFA rankings that made the tournament. Why the top 15? Because that's how many we needed to do in order for the USMNT to make the cut. You can read all of our previews here.

Over the last eight years or so, no team has been better than England at establishing a gap between the anticipation created by the overabundance of talent on its rosters and the excitement created by actually watching that roster play soccer. The results have been fitting: a loss in the semifinals at the 2018 World Cup, losses in the final at the Euros in 2020 and 2024, and a quarterfinals flameout at the 2022 World Cup. If you're an England fan, or just someone who wants to see great soccer players do cool stuff, the Three Lions' performances in those tournaments would have really ground your gears. One of the most talent-rich countries in the world set aside concepts like "attacking" and "having fun" to deploy a cagier, more structured style that is meant to be more suited to international competitions. All that strategy has yielded so far is underachievement that is also shit to watch.