Harry Kane made it to New York for 19 July. He played a favourite sport, too. Although it wasn’t football and it wasn’t in the MetLife Stadium. Kane did not watch the World Cup final. Perhaps it would have been too raw. “I was in New York playing golf,” the England captain recalled. “I flew straight after the third and fourth play-off [in Miami].”
If it was an attempt to take his mind off England’s exit, it was not as simple as that. Over the last decade, Kane has lost two finals, two semi-finals and a quarter-final in his country’s colours. The Atlanta defeat to Argentina was the most painful yet; perhaps because, having since turned 33, it may be his last chance to win the World Cup. In particular, though, there was the manner of it: England’s retreat as Thomas Tuchel went to a back five, the 36-minute spell when they had just 12 per cent of possession. Kane thought it was out of character. England, he said, went against their beliefs, their identity.
