After a promising start to the World Cup, England very much suffered a reality check tonight.
Their performance in the 0-0 draw against the USA was absolutely brutal, with Gareth Southgate's side largely outplayed by a side who possess far inferior quality in comparison to their own.
The Americans certainly had the better of the chances in the first half, with Christian Pulisic coming close to opening the scoring when his strike from outside the box struck the crossbar.
🏴 0-0 🇺🇸
33' Pulisic cracks one off the crossbar. The US are holding their own against England.
📺 Watch live now on @rte2 & @rteplayer - https://t.co/lu7hcoznl8
📱 Live updates: https://t.co/2HBvQd4p6j#FIFAWorldCup #ENGUSA pic.twitter.com/3ByoM81MpJ— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) November 25, 2022
The second half wasn't much better.
Neither team managed to create any chances of real note, and while the Americans did tire as the game went on, England never even looked like threatening the opposition goal.
Having looked impressive in their opening win against Iran, this was a damning indictment on their chances of lifting the trophy in Qatar next month.
Roy Keane can't resist England dig after USA performance
Prior to the game, there was some pre-match talk on ITV about how good the spirit was in the England camp at this tournament.
In fact, their own Ian Wright had been brought into the team hotel yesterday to play darts with some of the players and was waxing lyrical about their togetherness as a group.
Roy Keane wasn't buying any of it, saying:
I'm not into all that team spirit is important nonsense.
Of course, after England's first game they'd be laughing around. Let's see if they're still laughing at the end of the tournament.
You always had a sense that he might return to this issue after the match, especially when it did not go England's way.
The punditry trio of Wright, Keane, and Gary Neville all agreed that it was an incredibly poor performance from the British side.
When presenter Mark Pougatch suggested it might have something to do with the game kicking off at 10pm local time, the Irishman was never going to let the opportunity go.
"We could be here all night making excuses... they were playing darts last night"
Roy's been waiting to say this one all night 😂🎯#ITVFootball | #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/PdNX6OlmSU— ITV Football (@itvfootball) November 25, 2022
We will be here all night making excuses.
That's for all the teams, it's part of being a professional footballer. These players travel all over Europe playing in different conditions and different systems.
They were playing darts last night! Before the game they were a great bunch of players.
They didn't show their quality, but that happens. We're not here to crucify the players. They will move onto the next game and be fine. They need to do better because tonight wasn't good enough.
Classic Roy.
While this draw all but ensures England's passage into the next round, they will have to up their performance levels if they are to have a chance of advancing deep into the tournament.
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