England Rise to the Occasion, Advance to World Cup Semis

Interesting city, Samara.

Russia's third-largest city has hosted its share of history. For example:

• It's located at a point where the Volga River's so wide, it looks like a sea. Viking ships were such a common sight ten centuries ago that to this day, local businesses and landmarks include those images in their logos.
• It's where Stalin had his bunker built in case he needed to escape there in World War II, and
• It's where the rockets were built that propelled Yuri Gagarin to fame as the first man in space.

It was a fitting site, then, for either the English or the Swedish World Cup sides to make some of their own history.

 

Both have been anticipating a World Cup moment like this for a while:

• The Three Lions have been trying to do this since 1990 when they lost in the semi-finals to West Germany.
• The Blågult last made the semis in 1994, where an early red card doomed them in a loss to Brazil.

 

The irony here is England won, 2-0, by cashing in on what was supposed to be Sweden's strong suit: the aerial game.

But that's what happened when England put their tallest player in the box on a set piece and Sweden assigned a player seven inches shorter to mark him.

In the 30th minute, Ashley Young floated a corner into the middle, where Harry Maguire used his distinct height advantage to rise above Emil Forsberg and launched a screamer:

 

What in the name of all things Odin was Sweden thinking?

Maguire is the poster boy for how Gareth Southgate assembled this England team. Dude once showed up to a professional tryout carrying all his belongings in a garbage bag. Now a center-back at Leicester City who's in the squad because Gary Cahill isn't, everything at this level is a new experience to him.

But it's clearly not beyond him.

 

The second half was showing a more nervous Sweden and Raheem Sterling having many chances to score but missing all of them, with Robin Olsen making good saves.

Sterling's just gotta stop treating the ball like it's a land mine.

 

The Blågult were stymied trying to capitalize on counters because, frankly, England's lunch-bucket attack is rarely daring enough to be vulnerable to them.

When they did get a chance to flash their aerial game, English keeper Jordan Pickford was up to the task:

 

In the 58th minute, the Three Lions found their second goal, which was also from above.

It was Jesse Lingard’s time to float the ball inside the box and Dele Alli’s to send it to the net. Dude beat Emil Krafth, who wasn’t able to follow Tottenham’s midfielder:

 

Sweden kept at it, of course, creating solid shots from Forsberg and Marcus Berg:

Pickford finished with three saves, all of them outstanding.

Southgate raised many eyebrows when he selected his squad by excluding familiar names, but really, what did he have to lose? England was better know in the past couple of decades for disappointment.

This crew is making its own history, and they may not be done.