Key events
A cracking atmosphere in the air-conditioned home of the Dallas Cowboys. Kane and Modric swap merchandise. We’ll be off in a minute. “With all the focus on those mummified ancients in the Croatian midfield, it’s easy to overlook that the back line is, comparatively, a flock of spring chickens,” observes Kári Tulinius. “The fullbacks Šutalo and Stanišić are 26 years of age, two years older than Gvardiol, who’s partnered in defense by the 19-year-old Luka Vušković, which makes him less than half the age of his captain.”
The teams are out, and it’s time for the national anthems. Croatia first. ♪ ♫ ♬ “Our beautiful homeland / O so fearless and gracious / Our fathers’ ancient glory / May you be happy forever … Drava, Sava, keep on flowing! / Danube, do not lose your vigour! / Deep blue sea, tell the world / That a Croat loves his people!” ♪ ♫ ♬
And now it’s England’s turn. ♪ ♫ ♬ “We love Bulldog Bobby / Bulldog Bulldog Bob / We love Bulldog Bobby / He’s everybody’s number-one top dog!” ♪ ♫ ♬
[Narrator: Bulldog Bobby was not everybody’s number-one top dog]
Pre-match postbag: World Cup fever special. “I am imbibing your MBM with a beer on the train from Marylebone to Warwick and feel patriotically bound to inform you that excitement about England’s reasonable chances of victory tonight has reached the driver’s cab on my train. The usual modest tooting of the horn has been replaced by a ‘toot, toot, toot-toot-toot, toot-toot-toot-toot, ENG-LAND’” – Adrian Birch, somewhere around Bicester
“I’m watching this in a bar in the good ol’ USA (Nashville, Tennessee to be precise). It’s 22 years almost to the day that I last watched England v Croatia in an American bar (that day it was San Francisco) in the 2004 Euros, when a young lad called Wayne Rooney tore Croatia apart. Whatever happened to him, I wonder?” – Nick Parish
“First sunny evening for about a week here, so I’m off for a stroll by the Clyde with maybe a stop for a pint and a read. Oh, there’s a game on tonight? Huh” – James Humphries
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that England only win the World Cup when there is a gentleman of Fulham among the assembly. We therefore find it inexplicable that Mr Tuchel did not include young Master King in his party for that would have guaranteed that the honourable Captain Kane lifted the golden bauble. We can only assume that Mr Tuchel is of the opinion that a former gentleman of Fulham will suffice, for how else can one explain the presence of Mr Burn?” – Richard Hirst
“Keith Williams’ sketches are delightful. That’s all I wanted to say!” – Rachel Kelly
“If England lose and it all goes off, the very talented Keith Williams might have to add a slash of Constable red to his renderings” – Ian Copestake
England will play in their first-choice kit of white tonight. Harry Kane will hand over the FA’s stunningly boring pennant.
Croatia are therefore forced into second-choice blue. Always a shame when they’re not bedecked in their world-famous red-and-white checks, but the blue-and-even-darker-blue version is still a sight for sore eyes.
England have played 14 times under Thomas Tuchel. The manager’s record is pretty good: he’s won 11 of those games to the cumulative tune of 29-0. However there’s a fairly big caveat. The other three matches are the only times Tuchel has faced a team from the world’s top 20: England drew with Uruguay and lost to Senegal and Japan, all at home. Croatia are currently ranked 11th on the Fifa list. It’s a trend that needs snapping sooner rather than later if England (ranked world number four, to be fair) are to do anything this summer.
Luka Modric, who made his World Cup debut in 2006, 20 years ago tomorrow, coming on during a goalless draw with Japan, talks to ITV as well. “We did good qualifications … we played well … now is the real deal … we will see where we are at the moment … how good we are … I have a lot of confidence and belief in this team … a lot of young players … still some old guard … let’s see … age is just a number … this is how I see it … for me it’s not important … it’s important how you feel … what you do on the pitch.”
Thomas Tuchel speaks to Independent Television. “This is what we have worked for … the goal of the prep camp … to be ready for the day … I don’t want to be anywhere else in the world … so let’s go … ideal conditions … to play an intensive match … that’s our aim … we stick with the team that started so well against Costa Rica … we will not start and finish this match with 11 players … we need a strong bench … we have players who can influence and change matches from the bench … that is important … it was a 50-50 call to go with Jude [instead of Morgan Rogers] … I expected Mateo Kovacic to start so we have one slight tweak … we need to adapt our press … we are prepared for that … we are at the starting line … we let the players go and take the next steps.”
… so Jude Bellingham does indeed get the nod at 10 over Morgan Rogers. Anthony Gordon has been selected ahead of Marcus Rashford on the left, while Noni Madueke patrols the other flank; Bukayo Saka, not 100 percent fit, remains wrapped up safely on the bench. Ezri Konsa starts alongside John Stones in the centre of defence.
Croatia captain Luka Modric, 40, is about to appear at his fifth World Cup. He wins his 199th cap tonight. Ivan Perišić will make do with his 155th cap. Mateo Kovacic is on the bench and dreaming of cap number 114.
The teams
England: Pickford, Konsa, O’Reilly, Stones, James, Rice, Anderson, Bellingham, Kane, Gordon, Madueke.
Croatia: Livakovic, Stanisic, Gvardiol, Sutalo, Vuskovic, Modric, Mario Pasalic, Baturina, Petar Sucic, Perisic, Musa.
Way out west east. While the soccer stars get ready to rumble in Texas, art has broken out in Shoreditch, east London. “Dunno if it’s of interest but I’m sketching the England fans at the Old Blue Last,” writes Keith Williams, and very nice his work is too. Enjoy, observe, interpret, comprehend, appreciate, etc.
Some more scene-setting from our folk in Arlington. This comes to you from Guardian football writer and occasional meteorologist / retail trends analyst Ed Aarons.
It’s going to be a hot one at the Dallas Stadium for England’s opening game of the World Cup against Croatia, with temperatures expected to exceed 33 degrees when the game kicks off. Thankfully there is air conditioning throughout with a capacity crowd of 70,000 expected. Lots of England and Croatia fans have been gathering over the road from one of the entrances outside a Walmart, which I would imagine is much cheaper than buying drinks inside Fifa-land …
Some early team news. Courtesy of our man on the spot, Jacob Steinberg.
As predicted in today’s Super Soaraway Guardian, Jude Bellingham gets the nod at No10 for England. Anthony Gordon and Noni Madueke are on the flanks, with the latter preferred to Bukayo Saka, who’s been trying to shake off an Achilles problem. Ezri Konsa is picked over Marc Guehi in central defence too.
Time To Kill pt III. Our comprehensive Player Guide features every single player going to North America this summer, with potted bios written by experts from all around the world. Contains no trace of Trent Alexander-Arnold, and that’s an Official Guardian Guarantee™.
Time To Kill pt II. Bracketology allows you to curate your very own World Cup pipe dream. Click yon, drag hither, plot a route, reconfigure. Or if you’ve not got that much precious time to waste, hit shuffle and see what pops up. I’ve just done that and Curaçao have beaten Iraq in the final. Once again – because it’s the second time I’ve tested and trailed the shuffle feature – England didn’t get out of their group, and I’m beginning to suspect the coding for this was done in Glasgow. Anyway, it’s good fun, so get on it!
Time To Kill pt I. You want preview pieces? We got preview pieces.
Preamble
It’s day seven of the 2026 World Cup, and finally England are on their way. They are Tom’s 26. Hear the roar, of the red, white and … ah who remembers that cheesy old song anyway? Point is, after an interminable wait, England are at long last getting down to business.
Whether they’d have hand-picked Croatia as their first opponents is a moot point. On the one hand, England are a young and vibrant team, the sap rising, while most of Croatia’s first choice are in their 30s and their captain and talisman Luka Modric is now into his fifth decade. But on the other, this is a team that reached the final in 2018 and the semis last time round, and all of that Croatian experience has got to count for something.
There’s also the small matter of the head to head. England have won the last two meetings between the countries, in November 2018 and at Euro 2020, but the big ones that really counted went Croatia’s way – in Euro 2008 qualifying and the 2018 World Cup semi – and those results cut deep. So yes, England would have probably preferred to start their campaign against Panama or Ghana, but here we all are. Can England get it right this time? Kick off is at 9pm BST, 3pm at the home of the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas. It’s on!
