Football Fever Cup Edition: It's not coming home

In general terms though, I know you've got a lot of friends around the world and here in New Zealand who love the beautiful game and no doubt you're exchanging messages with them in the last few hours since the final whistle blew.

What's the general tenor of the conversation as far as England are concerned?

Yeah, I think if you were to jump on any social media around the world, it's pretty clear that England got it wrong after having the world champions in the palm of your hand, so to speak, and everything going for you.

And then all of a sudden you score and your world kind of gets flipped upside down for basically retreating into your own 18-yard box.

Yeah, it was a very odd tactic.

And I guess, look, if England had won the game 1-0, we'd be hailing Thomas Tuchel as a tactical genius, wouldn't we? Certainly a man who was capable of shutting up shop.

That didn't happen.

Let's do this logically and start at the start.

Thomas Tuchel made three changes.

Rhys James, Jed Spence and Morgan Rodgers coming in for Konca, O'Reilly and Majueke.

Harry Kane becoming England's record outfield player.

Appearance maker in this match, his 121st cap, taking him ahead of Wayne Rooney.

Only goalkeeper Peter Shilton has more, that's 125.

One change for Argentina, Giuliano Simeone, son of Diego.

Looks similar to his old man, doesn't he? Coming in to the side, the first half, Scotty, absolute street fight, wasn't it? Disguised as a semi-final, not for the faint-hearted out there, engrossing viewing, but just an absolute battle, wasn't it, the first 45?

Yeah, exactly what everyone predicted, I think, with the history between the two countries, with what Maradona did and obviously with Diego Simeone and David Beckham as well.

So it had everything in the first half and both teams throwing punches, going for each other.

I think tactically...

The changes that England made, I thought they were spot on.

I think there were probably some raised eyebrows or question marks about Rodgers starting where he started.

But with Pickford hitting the long three, four diagonal balls, then it was pretty clear that it was about the physicality of Rodgers over on that side.

I think tactically for the first half, I think England were spot on in what they did.

Well, they were pretty secure at the back, didn't they? Argentina had, I think, slightly more possession, but didn't really produce anything that threatened.

England, on the other hand, didn't really produce much either, but looked pretty secure at the back.

I saw a couple of stats.

In general terms though, I know you've got a lot of friends around the world and here in New Zealand who love the beautiful game and no doubt you're exchanging messages with them in the last few hours since the final whistle blew.

What's the general tenor of the conversation as far as England are concerned?

Yeah, I think if you were to jump on any social media around the world, it's pretty clear that England got it wrong after having the world champions in the palm of your hand, so to speak, and everything going for you.

And then all of a sudden you score and your world kind of gets flipped upside down for basically retreating into your own 18-yard box.

Yeah, it was a very odd tactic.

And I guess, look, if England had won the game 1-0, we'd be hailing Thomas Tuchel as a tactical genius, wouldn't we? Certainly a man who was capable of shutting up shop.

That didn't happen.

Let's do this logically and start at the start.

Thomas Tuchel made three changes.

Rhys James, Jed Spence and Morgan Rodgers coming in for Konca, O'Reilly and Majueke.

Harry Kane becoming England's record outfield player.

Appearance maker in this match, his 121st cap, taking him ahead of Wayne Rooney.

Only goalkeeper Peter Shilton has more, that's 125.

One change for Argentina, Giuliano Simeone, son of Diego.

Looks similar to his old man, doesn't he? Coming in to the side, the first half, Scotty, absolute street fight, wasn't it? Disguised as a semi-final, not for the faint-hearted out there, engrossing viewing, but just an absolute battle, wasn't it, the first 45?

Yeah, exactly what everyone predicted, I think, with the history between the two countries, with what Maradona did and obviously with Diego Simeone and David Beckham as well.

So it had everything in the first half and both teams throwing punches, going for each other.

I think tactically...

The changes that England made, I thought they were spot on.

I think there were probably some raised eyebrows or question marks about Rodgers starting where he started.

But with Pickford hitting the long three, four diagonal balls, then it was pretty clear that it was about the physicality of Rodgers over on that side.

I think tactically for the first half, I think England were spot on in what they did.

Well, they were pretty secure at the back, didn't they? Argentina had, I think, slightly more possession, but didn't really produce anything that threatened.

England, on the other hand, didn't really produce much either, but looked pretty secure at the back.

I saw a couple of stats.