Harry Kane’s penalty miss dooms England in World Cup loss to France

The English now have two disappointing Harrys. 

A penalty kick will live in infamy for England after Harry Kane hit an 84th minute try from the spot over the crossbar, letting France hang on for a 2-1 victory Saturday in the World Cup quarterfinal in Al Khor, Qatar, between the two ancient rivals. 

France will move on to play Morocco on Wednesday in the semifinals. England will move on to question how, yet again, its men’s national team let an opportunity at a major tournament fall through the cracks via a penalty miss. 

“We wanted to go toe to toe, we’ve done that,” England manager Gareth Southgate told reporters, an accurate summation of a game in which The Three Lions seemed to have the better of their opposition. This one will go down in the lore with a pair of disastrous penalty shootouts: last summer in the European championship against Italy and in the 1990 World Cup semifinals against West Germany. 

Kane, who had the chance Saturday to quell British nerves with an equalizer after Mason Mount was ruled to have been brought down illegally in the penalty box by Theo Hernandez, may never live down the miss. 

It is cruel, given that Kane had scored from the penalty spot in the 54th minute to tie the score at one and that England had dominated much of the second half before Olivier Giroud’s header in the 78th minute put defending champion France ahead. This English squad has shown much promise, but will need to wait at least two more years before its next crack at a major international trophy — which, for those counting, (which would include just about the country’s entire population) will make it 58 trips around the sun since England’s championship in the 1966 World Cup. 

“I believed in it,” Giroud said in French, per L’Equipe. “[Antoine Griezmann] gives me a good [cross] and afterwards it was an indescribable emotion.” 

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The last, desperate chance for England came on a free kick from just outside the box, taken as the clock struck 100 minutes. Unlike The Netherlands’ tying goal on Friday, there was no magic to be had — Marcus Rashford’s try dipped over the wall and hit the back stanchion of the net, just barely high. It turned out to be the game’s final kick, and Kane put his head in his hands, crouching down in disbelief. 

On the other side? 

“It was singing, it was dancing,” Giroud said of the French locker room. 

After six years with Gareth Southgate in charge, during which perennially underachieving England has competed for international titles, questions now must be asked about the manager’s future, as well as how the squad can avoid another disappointment two years from now in the European Championship. Southgate said he would “take time” before deciding on his future. The conversation, however, will center around Kane and hearken back to missed decisive kicks by Rashford and Bukayo Saka last summer. 

The question will be: How could this happen again? 

It will center around the existentialism of England, to which this always seems to happen, and the effervescence of France, which looks poised to make a second straight final if it can get past Morocco in the semifinals. 

Somewhere in that discourse will be the name of France’s Aurélien Tchouaméni, who uncorked a missile of a goal in the 17th minute and continues to be a revelation in midfield for a team that is missing N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba — its twin pillars during the title run four years ago. So, too, will the name Kylian Mbappé, who looks poised to repeat the feat of back-to-back World Cup titles, which Pelé achieved with Brazil in 1958 and 1962. 

No country has done it since and no manager has won two in a row since Italy’s Vittorio Pozzo in 1934 and 1938. France’s Didier Deschamps could soon add his name to that slice of history. 

And yet, as all of England’s losses tend to, this one feels more about the losers than the winners. 

Unlike the pre-Southgate England teams, this one did not seem to be crushed under the weight of expectation. But the tragedy of this defeat tends to matter less than the fact of its mere existence. 

And England will be contending with that for at least a while longer.