{"id":346369,"date":"2026-06-23T01:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T01:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/346369\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T01:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T01:09:09","slug":"harry-kane-looks-to-channel-tom-brady-as-england-faces-ghana-in-foxboro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/346369\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Kane looks to channel Tom Brady as England faces Ghana in Foxboro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 30 years after Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst recorded a hat trick at Wembley Stadium in the 1966 FIFA World Cup final, which England won, 4-2, over West Germany to capture their first and only title, comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner of the Liverpool band The Lightning Seeds wrote a song called \u201cThree Lions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 30 more years since the song\u2019s release, England fans have turned one of its lyrics \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s coming home\u201d \u2013 into a rallying cry.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because those three words reference an ongoing, 60-year wait the English have endured to bring another trophy back to their homeland, which codified the rules of association football (most Americans happily call it soccer), in the 1860s.<\/p>\n

So, is this the year the FIFA World Cup trophy comes home?<\/p>\n

England got off to a promising start by beating Croatia 4-2 in their Group L opener last Wednesday and are heavy favorites going into Tuesday\u2019s clash<\/a> against Ghana at Boston Stadium (4 p.m.).<\/p>\n

The Croatia result demonstrated what England does well: create chances, get attackers into dangerous positions, utilize pace, and profit off transitions. Croatia scored two lovely goals, the first time England conceded twice in the same game since losing the Euro 2024 final against Spain.<\/p>\n

England head coach Thomas Tuchel faced backlash for some of his roster selections ahead of the tournament, choosing to leave stars like Phil Foden, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Cole Palmer at home. That said, the squad remains remarkably stacked, with most players representing heavyweight clubs in the English Premier League, Spain and Germany.<\/p>\n

\"England'sEngland’s Elliot Anderson controls the ball during the World Cup Group L soccer match between England and Croatia in Arlington, Texas, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez)<\/p>\n

Tuchel was bound to leave a star or two at home, an embarrassment of riches similar to what France coach Didier Deschamps faced with selections for Les Bleus. The question is whether Tuchel chose the right players for the job. Reclaiming the title is the goal, but basic expectations hover between England reaching the quarterfinals or semis.<\/p>\n

Tuesday will be a bucket-list moment for Harry Kane, England\u2019s all-time leading scorer (81 goals) who converted twice against Croatia. As an academy player at Tottenham, he took inspiration from the documentary \u201cThe Brady 6,\u201d which chronicled Tom Brady\u2019s rise despite being selected in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

Kane, who was unsure of his chances of playing for the first team, went on to become a symbol of Tottenham and is a friend of the New England Patriots legend. Now at German powerhouse Bayern Munich, Kane was last season\u2019s leading scorer in Europe. But, he has yet to win a title for club or country.<\/p>\n

\"Ghana'sGhana\u2019s Antoine Semenyo, left, celebrates teammate Caleb Yirenkyi\u2019s goal during the World Cup Group L soccer match between Ghana and Panama in Toronto, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo\/Stephanie Scarbrough)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ghana needed a late goal to see off Panama in their opening match. Known as the Black Stars, the Ghanaians have qualified for five of the last six World Cups. Their best finish was reaching the 2010 quarterfinals, when an intentional handball by Luis Suarez obstructed a late winner and forced the game into penalties, where Uruguay ultimately prevailed over the Ghanaians.<\/p>\n

Ghana are technical, physical and resilient, developing a reputation for rising to occasion thanks in part to knocking the U.S. men\u2019s national team out of consecutive World Cups in 2006 and 2010. England are aware of Ghana\u2019s reputation and quality, even though the sides have only previously faced each other once (a 1-1 tie in a 2011 friendly).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a very athletic side and we\u2019ll give them a very tough match,\u201d England midfielder Elliot Anderson said on Monday. \u201cEvery day since we\u2019ve been here, we\u2019ve been in America for three weeks now together, and each day we\u2019ve been bonding, building as a group, and getting more comfortable together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first win shows the work we have been putting in behind the scenes over the last two weeks. Everything feels like it\u2019s coming together and we\u2019re only at the start of this journey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some 30 years after Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst recorded a hat trick at Wembley Stadium in the 1966…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,11725,123583,49711,123582,122101,3692,29003],"class_list":["post-346369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-boston","tag-boston-stadium","tag-england","tag-foxboro","tag-ghana","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}