{"id":305677,"date":"2026-06-12T21:28:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T21:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/305677\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T21:28:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T21:28:36","slug":"inside-englands-secret-world-cup-friendly-toneys-class-bellingham-selfies-and-tuchel-clears-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/305677\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside England\u2019s secret World Cup friendly: Toney\u2019s \u2018class\u2019, Bellingham selfies and Tuchel clears up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic app<\/a>.<\/p>\n

England have chalked up two wins from two games as they put the final touches to their World Cup preparations.<\/p>\n

The 1-0 win over New Zealand last Saturday<\/a> was followed by a 3-0 defeat of Costa Rica<\/a> on Wednesday\u2026 but there was another match that enabled Thomas Tuchel to fine-tune his squad for next week\u2019s Group L opener against Croatia.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, England took on Miami FC to wrap up their West Palm Beach training camp. The U.S. club play in the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer league pyramid, where they sit seventh in the Eastern Conference, 12 points behind leaders Tampa Bay Rowdies.<\/p>\n

No media or fans were allowed into watch, but\u00a0The Athletic has learned what happened \u2014 and the impression England\u2019s players and staff left on their opponents.<\/p>\n

What format was the game and what happened?<\/p>\n

The match was split into two 25-minute halves (it was initially planned for the game to be split into three 22-minute periods, but that was changed before kick-off), with both sides making wholesale changes at the break, and was then followed by an impromptu penalty shootout between the two teams at the end of the friendly.<\/p>\n

England won the game 6-0, scoring once in the first period and five in the second, with Ivan Toney netting a hat-trick\u00a0(one goal in the first half, two in the second).<\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s Mathieu Ndongo did hit the crossbar in the second half but this was mainly about getting the players who had not featured against Costa Rica some game time in a semi-competitive setting. Miami, too, made 11 changes for the second half of the game given they had their own match looming against Oakland Roots on Saturday.<\/p>\n

How did Tuchel approach it?<\/p>\n

The notion that Miami would have to do as they were asked by England \u2014 whether that meant playing in a certain formation or a particular style of football \u2014 was quickly dismissed by Tuchel in a conversation with the USL side\u2019s coaching staff, led by Gaston Maddoni.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking forward to this game for weeks,\u201d Victor Lonchuk, Miami\u2019s assistant coach who also performs the same role for Puerto Rico\u2019s national team, told The Athletic.\u00a0 \u201cWe watched Costa Rica against England and we said: \u2018OK, I think that we can do this\u2019, so even planning for that game is fantastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole situation was different and it was fantastic. At the beginning of the game, he (Tuchel) said: \u2018Play in any shape you guys want with any game model. We just want to see what we can do against you\u2019. In my experiences (of playing friendlies against elite sides), that was not the case, so right away you see a different approach to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Tuchel did not directly address Miami\u2019s players, something Lonchuk viewed as a sign of respect, there was one thing he did that caught the eye of others.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the game, he was fantastic,\u201d the 39-year-old continued. \u201cHe was picking up towels and bottles that were left on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who impressed for England?<\/p>\n

Nobody was drawing too many definitive conclusions from what was ultimately a training exercise, but Lonchuk was struck by Jordan Henderson\u2019s professionalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was fantastic,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was super aggressive \u2014 not in a way that he is going to hurt people but in getting close to our players, with intensity.\u00a0It was impressive to see that kind of player with that career doing that in a friendly game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lonchuk also highlighted the performances of Tino Livramento and Toney, who is competing with Ollie Watkins as the backup to captain Harry Kane.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I have to pick who impressed me the most, it was Toney,\u201d Lonchuk added. \u201cWe did play with plenty of centre-backs to control the box but the guy not only pushed away our defender, but also created some space for him with the right timing. Class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it wasn\u2019t planned, England and Miami took part in a penalty shootout after the friendly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told us last second and said we want to do 10 penalties, but we ended up doing five,\u201d Lonchuk added.<\/p>\n

As you might expect, the assistant coach would not reveal how they went, nor were any Miami FC staff able to record the shootout or take notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe penalty shootout was more important for us than for them,\u201d Lonchuk says. \u201cThere is a level of tension that a friendly provides that is not always equal to our training sessions and they were not able to do the same penalty. That was important information for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were any first-team starters there?<\/p>\n

He may not have played, but Jude Bellingham left a positive impression on Lonchuk.<\/p>\n

The Real Madrid midfielder watched the exercise from the sidelines and posed for photographs with the Miami players afterwards.<\/p>\n

\"Miami<\/p>\n

\n Victor Lonchuk with Jude Bellingham (Victor Lonchuk)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like we were chasing the players for a jersey,\u201d Lonchuk said. \u201cWe were super respectful, but if you ask me who got the most pictures with our players, it was Bellingham for sure!\u201d<\/p>\n

What did Miami gain from the experience?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could actually see in first person and compare players that we think are top in their positions in our league against elite players. You can see the difference in many ways,\u201d Lonchuk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir decision-making and execution is more in sync, so they need less time to actually do any actions. So, by the time that you think that you can do something, it\u2019s already too late and that\u2019s the main thing. It is not so much in the one-v-one situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, some of them are faster than our players, some of them are stronger than our players, but the reality is that there are many things that you can do to compensate.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s impossible to compete when someone makes decisions much quicker than what you are usually expecting them to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic app. England have chalked up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8094,8095,8215,123,125,124,5692,13223],"class_list":["post-305677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-england","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-international-football","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-mls","tag-premier-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}