Cruelly, the journey was brought to an end in Atlanta by the defending champions.
England had led their semi-final in Atlanta until the 85th minute, but then Argentina’s otherworldly powers of recovery kicked in and they prevailed 2-1.
Enzo Fernandez scored with five minutes to go, then Lautaro Martinez two minutes into stoppage time, both of them assisted by Lionel Messi, the greatest player of all time, whose genius showed no sign of having waned.
On to Sunday’s final to face Spain heads the 39-year-old and his team, an extraordinary group littered with Premier League pantomime villains who just seem to find a way. So did England, until this. Until now.
The journey ends
England hired Thomas Tuchel to get them over the line. Instead, another nearly moment, a ‘what if’ at the business end of a tournament. The wheat and the chaff duly separated, England are once again on the wrong side of it all. Their destiny is a third-place play-off against France.
In the end, the fact England finished the match with six or seven minutes of constant possession as they hunted a leveller was like a sick joke. They had barely seen the ball for the previous 40 minutes, intent on closing out a victory before it ever truly looked like one.
They sat so deep so concerningly soon after Anthony Gordon had scored a smart opener on 55 minutes. England retreated, Argentina drew forward into the ground. The pressure told. It was a tale as old as time, Tuchel party to it for the first time but England fans grimly familiar.
England have enjoyed some superb moments at this World Cup. Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane have kept them in the tournament until the final week, with a stand-up supporting act elevating the stars ahead of them. But a journey to end 60 years of hurt? This one, like all the others, wasn’t to be.
A tense affair
This meeting of two chaotic and closely-matched teams was bound to produce a match that betrayed as much; the question was whether the chaos would rain goals or would shrink the pitch and produce a tight, tense deadlock.
It proved the latter. Look hard enough on one of these long England major tournament nights and you can see, preserved in amber, the moment that sets the tone for the drama to follow.
In this case, a bullish foul on Elliot Anderson by Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez. England swarmed the American referee Ismail Elfath, demanding a yellow card; Jude Bellingham and Cristian Romero went at each other.
Referee Ismail Elfath struggled to get a hold of the match initially, both sides well up for the battle and Argentina intent on making it a cynical affair. Fernandez struck just over the bar. It would take riskier football and better football to split these two.
Defending deserts England this time
When Declan Rice stole the ball, played in Morgan Rogers, and Rogers crossed for Gordon to stick the opener smartly in, England were caught in the jubilation of it all and fans began to dream of a return to the World Cup final after six long decades.
The speed with which England slumped into old habits, backed off and invited Argentina to come onto them was a nail-biting sight and a concerning one too.
On came Ezri Konsa and Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly. And yet the clearances being made were by defenders already on — by John Stones and Marc Guehi, doing a fine job already without the need for the cavalry just yet.
Gordon’s goal was in the 55th minute, plenty of the game left. England sought to close it out too early. There was a time for Burn and co, the protection league who had hauled England across the line against Mexico and Norway. Just not yet.
Shattered bodies couldn’t get out fast enough to Fernandez’s strike from range, a goal so similar to those England conceded to Italy’s Claudio Marchisio at the 2014 World Cup and Aurélien Tchouaméni against France four years.
Messi lurked on the right, hooked in for Martinez to nod home. Argentina prepare for a final that might just have been England’s to contest, if they had been braver, had shown more of their teeth, in those crucial minutes after Gordon had raised belief for a nation now resigned to the same fate as usual. Not this time, again.
