England 6-1 Panama: Record Breaking!

This isn’t the way England normally do things. While most fans were expecting to win the match, I’m not sure anyone realistically expected a scoreline like this.

The match lacked the nail biting excitement of the win over Tunisia, but for England fans it was no less enjoyable. This was the team’s record win in a world cup finals, and at the same time Harry Kane became only the third England player ever to score a hat-trick in the finals.

We’re keeping our feet firmly on the ground. Yes it was “only Panama”. But there’s no shame in enjoying the moment. If you’ve sat through 20 years of under-performance in major tournaments, you deserve to celebrate when your team finally serves up something worthwhile.

Goals Galore

Gareth Soutghate said he didn’t like the way England started the match, and he had a point. But the slow start only lasted 8 minutes. As soon as John Stones opened the scoring, England turned on the style and the floodgates opened.

Harry Kane blasted in two correctly awarded penalties, but the highlights were Lingard’s superb curling effort, and Stones’ second goal which came after a very well worked free kick routine.

England were exhilarating, and (unlike the previous match) they finished their chances. Panama had no answer, and at times looked to be losing their discipline. The 5-0 half time scoreline didn’t flatter England at all. They were that good, and Panama were that bad.

The second half was, perhaps predictably, a lower key affair. Kane’s hat trick was confirmed via a deflection he knew nothing about. Panama got their consolation in the 78th minute, and it’s hard to begrudge them that goal especially when you saw how much it clearly meant to their fans.

England had switched off defensively by this stage, which is a slight cause for concern, but again understandable given the match situation at that time.

Cautious Optimism

We should enjoy what we’ve seen so far, but keep it in perspective. These are two games that England were expected to win. We’ve one one in style, but perhaps the main reason for the euphoria is that we’ve been so accustomed to struggling in these “should win” matches.

Nevertheless, beating two tournament minnows, however impressively, doesn’t suddenly make you world beaters. Gareth Southgate’s job now is to keep the players’ feet on the ground, and as fans we need to do the same. There are much, much sterner tests to come if we’re to make progress in this tournament.

Enjoy it for now, but stay humble and remember how far we’ve come.