England’s World Cup semi-final unravelled in the final five minutes in Atlanta, where a 1-0 lead built on Anthony Gordon’s 55th-minute strike dissolved into a 2-1 defeat. Argentina, the defending champions, found an equaliser through Enzo Fernández in the 85th minute and then, deep into added time, Lautaro Martínez headed the winner. Lionel Messi, subdued for long stretches, supplied both assists, exploiting the space England ceded after retreating into a deep defensive block.

Thomas Tuchel’s tactical shift became the immediate focus of the inquest. After Gordon’s goal, the England manager switched to a back five and introduced defensive reinforcements, withdrawing attacking players and leaving captain Harry Kane increasingly isolated and often defending near his own penalty area. The approach drew sharp criticism from former players and pundits across the English game. Then, at a FIFA reception in New York, President Donald Trump added an unscripted layer. ‘I think they perhaps made a mistake when they made him a defensive player,’ Trump said of Kane, with whom he had played golf 18 months earlier. ‘They took the lead, and they took their best player and put him on defence. We got to be a little offensive, right?’ He punctuated the remarks with a self-deprecating caveat—‘What do I know about coaching?’—but the intervention, viewed from Washington, was unmistakably a presidential critique of a German coach’s game management.

Tuchel, facing the media before the third-place play-off against France, met the Trump question with a dry riposte: ‘Do you use Donald Trump as your witness for the case?’ He then defended his decisions, insisting he had no regrets. ‘I felt that we became too passive,’ he said. ‘I took several decisions, trusting my instinct, my intuition, my experience … I took the decision in order to help the team and get the result.’ The Football Association has publicly backed Tuchel, whose contract runs until 2028, but the defeat has left what the manager called ‘scars’. He acknowledged a gap remains between England and the nations that regularly contest finals—Argentina, Spain, and France—pointing to their accumulated tournament pedigree.

England now travel to Miami for a third-place match against France, a fixture that offers the chance to secure the country’s best World Cup finish since 1966. For Argentina, the final against Spain in New York awaits, while the broader tournament, co-hosted across North America and expanded to 48 teams, continues to generate record audiences. Trump, meanwhile, used the same reception to praise FIFA president Gianni Infantino and revisit the controversial suspension of a red-card ban for US striker Folarin Balogun, a decision that had already stirred debate about political influence. The football, however, moves on: England must regroup for a consolation prize that will either salve or deepen the wounds of a semi-final surrendered.