6-2 was the final score in England’s first game of the World Cup. Although coming into the game everyone expected to see England get past Iran the final score was certainly a surprising one. With this statement in the first game did England just put everyone on notice or do we have to consider that Iran is perhaps not worthy competition for the 3 Lions?
What England Did Really Well
Although England certainly controlled the game they weren’t necessarily all over Iran to the point where the 6 goals made sense. What we mean by that is, they had around 7 shots on goal, and they had converted 5 of the chances at that point. Therefore, what they clearly did really well was being extremely efficient in front of goal. They showed their offensive firepower.
Another major positive for England was actually the fact that Harry Kane did not find the back of the net. In fact, other than the assist that he had on the Sterling goal he wasn’t necessarily overly active in that England offense. The 3 lions though proved that they have a ton of different players that can come up from the back line and find the back of the net. It’s highly unlikely that we’ll see another team score as many goals as England. Perhaps throughout the entire tournament.
There May Still Be Some Concerns At The Back
The win is certainly something that England welcomes as is their efficiency in front of goal which we highlighted. Iran didn’t provide too much pressure to the England defense throughout the entire game. This makes the only goal that they scored on an active play a bit more concerning. It’s again Harry Maguire out of position. We don’t want to pin all the blame on Maguire, but the play was a sign of the main issues that can happen with a back three. When the striker finds a spot in between 2 of the defenders on the back line it can be hard for any of them to get in front of him and affect the play. That’s exactly how Iran’s first goal came about.
In the second goal that England concedes we could point to careless defense a bit as well. However, calling a penalty on that particular play is a bit too much. There’s an argument to be made that the play can be a teaching point for the England defense. In these early stages of the cup though the refs have more or less allowed teams to play, not calling too many small contact plays as fouls. With that in mind it was actually quite surprising that England got that penalty called against them.
If we had to provide a conclusion, we’d say that there are a ton of positives for England to hang their hat on. They’ll likely make a deep run at this World Cup. However, they should not overlook some of the issues on that defensive end which could be the weak spot for the team.
Where Does Iran Go From Here?
There’s been a lot of talk on social media about Iran and Qatar being teams that don’t really have anything to offer in the tournament. The US and Wales that face Iran later in the cup though should not overlook them. They certainly laid an egg in this first game, but there’s also no guarantee that Wales or the US are going to be as effective in front of goal as England was today. The Iran team needs to regroup and figure out how they’re going to sure up that back line to see if they can compete in their final 2 games of the tournament.
