England will stress you out, drain you, have you questioning your life choices — but they've got Harry Kane, and right now that matters more than anything else.
While the debate rages about right-backs and the general capacity of this squad to give supporters a single uncomplicated evening, Kane went and did what Kane does. Two goals against DR Congo. England come from behind to win 2-1. Job done. Last 16 sorted, Mexico up next. You can moan about the system, the selection, the structure — and fair enough, some of it deserves moaning about — but none of that changes what we've just watched from the England captain.
The Man Carrying This Tournament
There are players who exist in squads, and there are players who exist above squads. Kane is the second type. When England were behind, he didn't wait for the team to find its shape or for Southgate's replacement to rediscover the formation. He just solved the problem himself. That's what genuinely world-class strikers do — they bail the collective out when the collective isn't good enough.
We've seen the Ballon d'Or conversation building around Kane for a while now, and performances like this against DR Congo are exactly why it belongs there. He is, without serious argument, England's greatest ever striker. That's not blind patriotism, that's just looking at the evidence in front of you. The numbers, the consistency, the big moments — it's all there.
Yes, he's trailing Mbappé in the World Cup Golden Boot race right now. But we're in the knockout rounds and Kane has goals in the bank. The race is nowhere near finished, and if England keep progressing, Kane will keep scoring. That's not a prediction built on hope. It's a pattern built on watching this man for years.
England's Fault Lines Don't Cancel Kane's Greatness
Let's be honest with ourselves. This England side has issues that aren't going away. The right-back situation is a genuine problem — there's no point dressing it up. The team can be laboured, they can make simple things complicated, they've got a habit of making comfortable moments unnecessarily hairy.
But here's the thing we need to keep central to the conversation: a team with those problems still competing at a World Cup last 16, against Mexico no less, is a team that shouldn't be written off. Why? Because they've got a matchwinner who operates independently of whether the system is clicking or not.
Kane doesn't need everything around him to be perfect to produce. That's the difference between a good player and a great one. Good players perform when everything works. Kane performs when it doesn't.
Our Verdict
England are flawed, patchy, and occasionally infuriating. We wouldn't have it any other way, frankly — this is England. But the next time someone wants to write this squad off or spiral into doom about the right-back crisis, remember what we watched against DR Congo.
Harry Kane came from behind, took the game by the scruff of the neck, and won it for his country. Again.
Special. Saviour. England's greatest. Ballon d'Or contender. Pick whatever label you want — they all fit.