England 2-Tunisia 1

England have never been known to do things the easy way. As a player Gareth Southgate featured in many a nail-biting match for his country, and his first game in charge at a major tournament proved to be suitably tense. Expectations had been modest in the build-up for this young England team, but as all the heavyweights struggled or dropped points in the opening days, you could feel swell of optimism among the England faithful.

Southgate could not have asked for a better opening to the game. The England manager has been very keen to demonstrate that he has a system and technical plan with this squad, and England looked well drilled with an organized press at the start. Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard were drifting into open channels, and England piled forward creating some good chances, and could have been a goal or two up within the first five minutes. Their endeavor paid of on the quarter hour mark when Harry Kane tucked home a rebound from Stones header.

Southgate would surely have hoped that England could continue this enterprising play, but something happened. Nerves possibly kicked in as England’s, and the three-man defense looked shaky the first sign of pressure. Tunisia’s North African neighbours, Morocco and Egypt had bene drab and negative in their openers, but Tunisia at least had a go. And when the equalized from a penalty sloppily conceded by Kyle Walker, suddenly this seemed to look like a familiar story for England.

England have been in this position so many times. It has been a common accusation at the England team that they start games well, only to go missing in the second half. After a grueling Premier League season it has been argued that the players are just too fatigued to perform in the World Cup (in 2002 the team made it to the quarter finals without scoring a goal in the second half). In the opening match of the World Cup 2010 against USA and Euro 2012 against France England took a lead after a strong start before submitting and drawing the game 1-1.

When play resumed in the second half England were incapable of regaining the dynamism that they enjoyed in the opening stages of the match. The team was almost trying to hard. The relaxed free-flowing football had been replaced with plodding, predictable play as the team tried to force their way through. This is typical of the modern England footballer. The longer the games goes without success the more the doubt creeps in, before they are totally succumbed by paralysis and fear.

Luckily for England they possess a player who is immune from this affliction. Harry Kane has been proving people wrong since the day he made his debut Spurs. Many said he was destined to be a one-season wonder after his break-through season in 2014-15. Since then he has picked up two Golden Boots awards, and established himself as one of the elite forwards in the world. If he misses a good chance, he won’t play it back in his head, worry about what he did wrong. He’ll simply wait for the next one and assume he’ll score. This unruffled self-confidence has not been seen in an England striker since Alan Shearer or Gary Lineker, the last great strikers to wear the Three Lions. So of course it was Kane who pounced on a flick-on from Harry Maguire to head home the winner in stoppage time, sending the nation into a frenzy.

This was by far a great England performance. If Kane hadn’t scored the winner there would have been the moans and groans of “Same old England.” But the fact is England did get the winner, and a so a kindle of hope remains for this team. And when you have a player of Kane’s caliber in your team, even when it seems like you’re totally out of ideas, you’ve always got a chance.