Harry Kane has thrown his weight behind Thomas Tuchel remaining as England head coach, despite the heartbreak of losing the World Cup final to Argentina. The England captain admitted the squad is still grieving after conceding two late goals in Atlanta to lose 2-1, having led 1-0 with five minutes of normal time remaining. England rebounded with a 6-4 win over France in the bronze-medal match, but Kane acknowledged the pain of the near-miss will linger.
“Of course we’re still feeling it from the other night, the emotion and the what ifs,” Kane said. “That will be with us for a while now. We’re still in that grieving stage, the emotional stage, and we’ll be in that for the next few weeks.” Despite criticism of Tuchel’s defensive substitutions in the final, which drew scorn from figures including US President Donald Trump, Kane praised the German’s impact.
“It’s our highest finish in 60 years,” Kane said. “The enthusiasm he has, the emotion he brings, the tactical experience he has. It doesn’t mean you’re going to get it right every time. He not only gave the players belief but he gave the country belief that it was our year. That is why it hurts even more than other years because everyone believed we were going all the way.”
Kane said discussions about the future will take place in the next camp, and stressed the need to learn from the defeat. “The last 30 minutes of Argentina is not the team we want to be,” he added. “We spent a lot of time over the last two years talking about that situation, to attack those moments. The bottom line is we lost anyway. We need to get better at actually being in those situations.”
Looking ahead, Kane highlighted the Nations League as a key opportunity, with matches against Spain and Croatia. “Getting used to those big environments and finding our best form against those teams, like we did against France – albeit not in the most competitive match. We have to learn, improve. The coach will have improved from these learnings.”
