Oliver Barnard: Overpriced beers, Wonderwall and Harry Kane – following England across America

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Harry Kane has bailed me out again.

For more than an hour in Atlanta I was convinced I'd flown across the Atlantic, spent 12 days in America and watched England draw 0-0 before losing 1-0. The trip of a lifetime was threatening to become a footballing disaster.

Then England's captain did what England's captain so often does. Two Kane goals later, I was celebrating with thousands of England fans belting out Wonderwall as the players sang it back to us. Those are the moments we do it for. 

Back to the beginning.

I've been a member of the England Supporters Travel Club (ESTC) for four years now and it has taken me to Qatar, Germany and now the United States. Only 3,500 tickets were allocated to ESTC members per game for this World Cup, compared with more than 10,000 at Euro 2024, which tells you plenty.

With tickets for the second group and first knockout games secured, I booked a flight into Boston. I gambled on England winning the group and booked my flight home from Atlanta - some may say naive, I say optimistic. 

England celebrate after beating DR Congo in Atlanta

American enthusiasm was plain to see

I expected half-empty stadiums and a public largely indifferent to the World Cup. Instead, the opposite was true. Americans travelled huge distances, spent extraordinary sums of money and packed out stadiums regardless of who was playing. Their appetite for the tournament was superb to see.

But while the last few weeks have shown me America loves football, or perhaps just the World Cup, I think that enthusiasm was slightly undermined by a lack of understanding of the sport and, even more so, by those in charge.

Take the concourses. England fans gathering to sing before kick-off is completely normal to anyone who has followed club or international football. In America, security guards repeatedly tried to disperse groups of supporters, but the locals loved it, standing filming us as though they'd never witnessed anything quite like it as 'Ten German Bombers' rang out.

Need I say more about America's distance from the sport after President Trump rang Gianni Infantino to have Florian Balogun's red card suspended. I'm sorry, what? Not a single American I spoke to could understand that a challenge being accidental does not stop it from being a red card.

Harry Kane is on my mind...

Boston was brilliant and the people were welcoming and fun. Boston Stadium, however, was anything but in Boston. It required an $80 train journey that normally costs around $20, another reminder of Fifa and America's exploitation of the fans. Then there was the $20 bottle of beer outside the ground. Oh well, drink up, EN-GER-LAND.

England's game against Ghana was rather frustrating to watch, but we don't pay for results, we pay to be there for the occasion and to support the team. Ghana came not to lose and England never quite found a way through. On another day Kane buries that late chance and everyone goes home happy.

Rather than head to New York for the Panama game, I visited a friend in Portland, Maine - a beautiful part of America. By half-time of the final group game I was on Skyscanner checking flights to Toronto, convinced England were about to finish second in the group and ruin my carefully planned route home.

Thankfully Kane and Jude Bellingham had other ideas and to Atlanta I went. For 70 minutes of the last-32 game against DR Congo it was hugely difficult. England were in trouble, but up stepped our captain, twice. Limbs everywhere.

Tuchel has the magic touch for tournament football

Home I go, still on American time and gutted not to be in Mexico. Why didn't I book more annual leave? After staying up to watch that thriller, I'm even more gutted not to be there.

But what a game. That's the sort of performance that puts you on a path to win a tournament. Everything seemed to go against England, yet somehow they found a way. Tuchel got it spot on with his tactics and his substitutions. He's a tournament-winning manager.

On we go. I'm confident now. I can't see us being stopped by Norway or even Argentina, who have scraped by Cape Verde and Egypt. They're both one-man teams and, if anyone can find a way to nullify that, it's our gaffer.

France in the final, let's have it. As the song goes: 'Football's coming home again, with Thomas Tuchel, one, two, three, four.'

England vs Ghana at the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro

Read more:

Norway vs England: Vikings set to be vanquished

Argentina vs Switzerland: Solid Swiss can stand firm

Lars Sivertsen: World Cup clash will intensify Norway's obsession with English football

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