裘德·贝林厄姆正准备在对阵西班牙时高速且凶猛地奔跑。照片：Eddie Keogh/The FA/Getty Images 责怪游戏 到本周六，距离亚特兰大那场痛苦与耻辱之战将过去整整73天。当时英格兰队在世界杯半决赛中占据领先优势，却决定重蹈覆辙，开始死守比分。随后的场景就像是一段慢动作的碰撞测试假人视频：恩佐·费尔南德斯先是以其极其戏剧化的狂欢庆祝唤醒了96年欧洲杯上安迪·默勒的幽灵，随后劳塔罗·马丁内斯无人防守，头球破门。全球各地的英格兰球迷垂头丧气，克罗伊登盒式公园（Croydon BoxPark）陷入死一般的寂静。给莱昂内尔·梅西在右肋内侧留下整个佐治亚州那么大的自由空间，被证明是一个致命的疏忽。哎呀。
Jude Bellingham gets ready to run fast – and hard – against Spain. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/The FA/Getty Images THE BLAME GAME Come Saturday, it will be 73 days since the pain and shame of Atlanta, when England from a winning position in a World Cup semi-final, decided to do an England, and sit on their lead. What followed resembled a slow-motion crash test dummies video, Enzo Fernández first summoning the ghost of Andy Möller at Euro 96 with his high-camp cavorting celebration, and then Lautaro Martínez, unmarked, nodding home. Englishmen across the globe slumped, Croydon BoxPark fell deathly silent. Allowing Lionel Messi the freedom of Georgia on the inside-right channel had turned out to be a critical oversight. Whoops.
现在还为时过早吗？感觉确实如此。一场漫长的国际比赛日间歇期带来了对夏天的痛苦回忆，欧国联的四场连赛不过是重返国际足联比赛的温和过渡，尽管面对世界冠军是对其成色的一次严峻考验。英足总此前大肆吹嘘赢得了一场形似宿醉慈善赛（Soccer Aid）的三四名决赛——当时法国队在上半场甚至都没有进行一次铲断——是1966年以来最佳表现，这种言论对拂去失望情绪毫无帮助。各方都有责任需要分摊，而托马斯·图赫尔也非常乐意分担。他对当初那种死守阵脚战术的解释，简直就是“不是我的问题，是你们的问题”。
Still too soon? Feels that way. An everlasting international break brings unwelcome flashbacks to the summer, the Nations League quadruple-header a soft re-entry to international football, though facing world champions is a severe test of credentials. Any Football Association bloviation of a best performance since 1966 in winning a third-place playoff game that resembled a hungover Soccer Aid, France not making a tackle in the first half, has done little to brush away the disappointment. Plenty of blame to share around, and Thomas Tuchel more than happy to share it. His explanation for that battening down of the hatches has been a case of “it’s not me, it’s you”.
图赫尔对事情的说法是，在比赛还剩九分钟时换上“大丹”伯恩，是对球员们已经单方面决定挤在乔丹·皮克福德面前、重蹈过去失败覆辙的一种反应。图赫尔借用了席德·维瑟斯对普通人的看法，曾表示99%的球迷都不会过问他在亚特兰大的换人决定。顺着图赫尔的逻辑，异国他乡总有那么一个角落属于英格兰球员：他们精疲力竭、无法完成传球、体力耗尽。这是一个令人信服的论点，也有大量类似案例可以支持它，但阻止这种情况发生难道不是图赫尔的工作吗？本周的分析表明，体力耗尽是在图赫尔要求球员在小组赛中拼命奔跑之后出现的。这支大部分刚经历过英超联赛激烈竞争和鏖战的球队，无法在淘汰赛中复制这样的体能，他们对阵墨西哥和挪威时的狼狈防守，正是对阵阿根廷前的凶险前奏。
The Tuchel version of events is that shovelling on Big Dan Burn with nine minutes to play was a reaction to players having already decided unilaterally to bunch up in front of Jordan Pickford and follow in the tradition of failures past. Conjuring Sid Vicious’s thoughts on the man in the street, Tuchel has said 99% of fans don’t ask him about his Atlanta substitutions. To follow Tuchel’s narrative, there’s some corner of a foreign field that’s for ever an England player, exhausted, unable to complete a pass, gassing out. It is a compelling argument, plenty such cases to back it up, though was it not Tuchel’s job to stop it happening? Analysis this week suggested the gassing out followed Tuchel asking players to run too hard in the group stage. A squad mostly coming off hard seasons in the grasp and grapple of the Premier League could not replicate such energy in the knockouts, their rearguard efforts against Mexico and Norway portentous preludes to facing Argentina.
进入一种假设的情景，大概率是曾把阿根廷撩拨到失去理智的西班牙队，也会在决赛中对英格兰如法炮制。他们在2024年欧洲杯决赛中就已经这么做过了。西班牙队在21世纪的成功常常引发全方位的改革派反思，追问英格兰是否能从中汲取教训。“我们没有西班牙那种能像他们一样掌控比赛的力量，”目前在西班牙踢球的安东尼·戈登叹息道，他在亚特兰大进球的记忆此时显得苦乐参半。戈登的解决办法是什么？“发挥我们的长处，那就是踢出身体对抗、直接的足球以及打反击。”听起来很熟悉。随着图赫尔毫无悔意，英格兰人正准备以一贯的风格迎接2028年欧洲杯，本周六对阵西班牙的比赛便是开始。
Entering a fantasy scenario, the likelihood is that Spain, who teased Argentina to the point of losing their rag, would have done much the same to England in the final. They already did that in the Euro 2024 final. Spain enjoying 21st century success often sends root-and-branch reformers to ask whether England can learn lessons. But “we don’t have that strength like the Spanish, where we control games like they do,” sighed Anthony Gordon, now playing in Spain, memories of his goal in Atlanta bittersweet. Gordon’s solution? “Play to our strengths, which is play physical, play direct football and on the counterattack.” Sounds familiar. With Tuchel unrepentant, the English ready themselves for Euro 2028 as more of the same, starting Saturday with Spain.
重大网站现场直播 加入迈克尔·巴特勒，从英国夏令时晚上7:45开始关注欧洲国家联赛实时战报，包括意大利0-0比利时、土耳其0-0法国等更多比赛。
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE Join Michael Butler from 7.45pm BST for a Nations League clockwatch, including Italy 0-0 Belgium, Turkey 0-0 France, and more.
今日金句：“我说话比大多数队长都少，但我知道大家都在看着。他们会想：‘如果这家伙跑得像头野兽，我也得跟上。’如果你话说得太多，却没有做到该做的事，人们就不会再听你的了。”——拉菲尼亚与西德·洛韦畅谈，他是如何凭借不知疲倦的双腿，在巴塞罗那队中用行动而非言语来领导球队的。拉菲尼亚摆出标志性姿势。摄影：巴勃罗·加西亚/《卫报》
QUOTE OF THE DAY“I talk less than most captains but I know people are watching. They think: ‘If this guy’s running like an animal, I have to follow.’ If you talk too much and then don’t do what you have to, people aren’t going to listen” –Raphinha gets his chat on with Sid Lowe about how he lets his hard-working legs do the talking for him when he leads Barcelona. Raphinha gets his pose on. Photograph: Pablo Garcia/The Guardian