How cowardly Thomas Tuchel threw away England's World Cup in semifinal collapse to Argentina

It seemed that England had one foot in the World Cup final. They did, until suddenly they didn't.

The Three Lions snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, absorbing yet another kick to the groin on the biggest stage. It's the latest in a long line of painful defeats since England won the 1966 World Cup, enduring heartbreak after heartbreak.

It felt like 2026 could be the year football finally came home, as Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham hauled the Three Lions to the semifinals. When Anthony Gordon put England 1-0 up shortly after the second-half restart, Tuchel's side seemed to be on their way.

And then, Tuchel decided not to kill off the game, but instead retreated into his shell against the tournament's greatest comeback specialists. To the surprise of no one, Argentina happily snatched the chance to stage a reversal, with goals in the 85th and 92nd minutes putting them through.

The Sporting News explains how Tuchel bears the weight of this defeat and why the result betrays everything the German was hired to do.

MORE: Player ratings for England vs. Argentina in World Cup semifinals

How Thomas Tuchel threw away World Cup semifinal

Twenty-seven minutes. That's how long Tuchel expected England to survive in a low block against Argentina, who were beginning to compress the Three Lions back into their own half. That's how long Tuchel thought his side could last up one goal against the greatest player of all time.

As arrogant as Didier Deschamps was to believe France could make no fundamental changes against Spain, Tuchel was deluded. They did it against Mexico at the Azteca down a man, but to do so against the defending World Cup champions — even at full strength — is another task entirely.

As Argentina began to dominate in midfield and squeeze England back into their own half, the 52-year-old German coach made no changes until he brought on Ezri Konsa in the 72nd minute, replacing England's goal-scorer Gordon.

It was the equivalent of waving the white flag. Inviting Argentina to attack you late is like opening the cage while diving with sharks. When you get bitten, you have no one to blame but yourself.

And Argentina bit, not once, but twice. From Gordon's opening goal to Lautaro Martinez's winner, Argentina held 88 percent possession to England's 12.

It's not like the England coach couldn't have seen this coming. Argentina have not led in the 90th minute of any knockout match at this World Cup. They needed extra-time winners against Cape Verde and Switzerland, and they scored the winning goal in stoppage time against Egypt. And here we sit, having watched Tuchel openly invite Argentina to do it a fourth time.

After Konsa, Tuchel brought on Dan Burn and Nico O'Reilly in the 82nd minute. All three are defenders. It meant not only was the England boss conceding essentially all possession, he also left the team entirely ill-equipped to punch back once they conceded Enzo Fernandez's equalizer. Sure, that goal was a long-distance banger that the Chelsea midfielder scores maybe once in 20 chances. But after that, England had absolutely no means to fire back. Instead, they had no choice but to continue defending, and the entire stadium could have predicted what would come next.

A bit of Messi magic. A thumping header. An emphatic Argentina celebration. Another England heartbreak.

Who could have seen this coming? Everyone but Thomas Tuchel, it would seem.

"We're disappointed, we were so close but we got too passive after we scored and conceded a lot of chances," he said to BBC Sport. "We could not turn the ball possession around and then conceded so many crosses, chances and shots.

"We conceded [a chance] straight away and we decided to go to a back five because the gaps were far too open. They won every header, they kept crossing and crossing so we went to a back five to close the gaps inside and be strong in the air. Straight after our goal, without any substitutions, we conceded way too many crosses and way too many chances, so we tried to help.

"Of course, the responsibility is on the coach and if it doesn't go well, it is easy to say it was wrong. Of course we wanted to go for the second goal, but I did not have the feeling that offensive substitutions would help. We stayed in our 4-4-2 but we became passive, more and more passive.

"It's no problem, I can understand these discussions are out there and there are millions of coaches after the game who know it better."

Tuchel fails in match he was hired to win

These were exactly the games Tuchel was hired to win.

Gareth Southgate got England to the brink on multiple occasions, but never over the hump. They reached the quarterfinals of the 2022 World Cup before losing to defending champions and eventual finalists France. They lost the 2018 semifinal to Croatia in extra time after leading 1-0. They finished runners-up at the European Championship twice under their old boss.

With Southgate unable to lift a trophy, England brought in Tuchel to win these games specifically. Tuchel wasn't hired to engineer a late comeback against DR Congo, or to beat Mexico at the Azteca, rare as that is for a visiting team. And it wasn't to lead England to victory over a newfound Norway side in extra time.

It was to beat Argentina, beat France, beat Spain. England fans crave a spot amongst the European and global elite, and yet they have just a single victory over a team ranked higher than them in the knockout stage of a World Cup or Euros since rankings were introduced in the early 1990s. And that was a shootout win over Spain in Euro 96.

"These players are used to these moments — they play Champions League and Europa League to the end," Tuchel said at the end of the group stage. "They know what it takes. We will step up. The bigger the games get, the bigger we will get."

This was the game Tuchel was brought on to win, and instead of grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck while up a goal, he timidly retreated into a shell and threw it away.