ENG (1) – ARG (2) in the second semifinal today.

The England-Argentina semi today, in contrast, was about individual brilliance. But this only came into play because both teams were already great as teams.

Messi on the Argentina side was critical for both goals with talented teammates to help convert the opportunities to goals. In the case of Argentina, no special strategy decision had to be made because they were down in the 55th minutes in an elimination match. What choice other than to press and go on full attack? And they did.

But the individual of the day was England’s manager Thomas Tuchel who basically led the Three Lions to a defeat. He determined that with 35 minutes to go, the best strategy was to defend the narrow 1-goal lead, sit bak and not attack, lest it leave an opening in defense – a plan that made sense to nobody else, it seems. A wave of substitutions took out attackers and replaced them with defenders. England formed a wall around their goal and barely left their own penalty box. This freed up Argentina to try again and again with little fear of a counter. Argentina had most of the possession after 55′ (88%, said the folks on TV!).

Everybody knows that you cannot score without ever taking shots and no further explanation is needed for what happened. The thing I wanted to point out, though is that England is also phenomenal as a team. And has plenty of attacking firepower and spirit. But when one leader sets a wrong strategy, he can lead a fantastic team off a cliff, or to an ignominious ending. Yet, they ended the night with no honor, unlike Switzerland’s exit, Cape Verde’s, Egypt’s or Belgium’s. So…talent, great teamwork and good leadership to set the right strategy.

I am reminded today of the tragic incident from 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. A highly capable team, capable individually and capable of perfect coordination, sat around in cowardice when they could have almost certainly pulled off a much more glorious outcome – just following bad decisions of leadership. Of course, these two inciddents are in completely different leagues. One is just a game and the second is a massive national tragedy, but the parallel is that trying to avoid all risk is a losing strategy – suffocating in your own coffin of dishonor.