To ask why the England team (the men) keep falling at the final hurdle, (well virtually at the final hurdle,) at the football World Cup ... and The Euros too?

The other team last night massively hindered our momentum with all their stupid shirt tugging and fouls.

horrible team - come on Spain

I agree with this. I'm not really into football but watching last night you've put into words exactly what I observed. Argentina wanted that ball and played it with everything they had. They also have Lionel Messi, even I can see he's in a league of his own, a very intelligent and superbly skilled player.
I also think the previous match played at altitude and the heat means England were very likely exhausted. I've trekked at altitude in South America and it is brutal without acclimitisation (typically 3-6 weeks).

Totally agree with everything you’ve said. Trying to work out though why Messi is so incredibly dislikeable. He makes my skin crawl - and my teen son has a similar reaction.

This is exactly what DH said.

I've been saying this for years, but for my money it's because our regional teams buy in far too many foreign players.

Come the world cup all of the overseas players go and play for their home country, and England is left with half the pool to pick from.

We could have a team stuffed with top talent if we stopped investing so much in overseas players at a regional level.

Last night playing for Argentina were:

Christina Romero - Tottenham
Enzo Fernandez - Arsenal
Emiliano Martinez - Aston Villa
Alexis Max Allister - Liverpool
Lisandro Martinez - Man U

Conversely, only two of the England starting lineup play overseas at the moment - Kane and Bellingham.

I've said for years that we have a major problem with clubs not investing in enough home grown talent and taking the easy route of buying in players from other countries, which costs us dearly in international tournaments - because come the day all of that talent English clubs buy in and train then goes home and plays against England!

Well. The first seed was Spain and the second seed was Argentina. France were third and England fourth. One might say we are exactly where we should expect to be.

A large dollop of it is the pressure though. Relentless crap from fans and the media about avenging Maradona in 1986 when nobody in the team was even born then.

Because they didn't put fresher players on later in the game, like Argentina did. So all the tired players got more tired playing to the end. That's my take anyway; didn't even watch it. My teenage daughter and I went to the park and had a great workout because nobody was there!

Because:
a) they aren’t hands down the best team, AND
b) they used the wrong tactics.

Even a team that isn’t technically the best on pitch can win if they have a little luck and if they absolutely give it everything they’ve got and fight for it every inch of the way. England got their first goal and then moved to cautious defensive play. I think this would be an easier loss for fans to swallow if they could see England had left everything they had on the pitch, but were still bested by a superior team.

And I’m saying this as someone who couldn’t care less about football 😆

They’re not as good as they think they are. It’s as simple as that really.

I agree. When Spain were one goal up against France they spent the rest of the game trying to get more goals.

By the semi finals you will always meet one of the three other best teams in the world. Seeding won't change that.

They came up against a team who are ranked higher than them, who know how to win the big matches, who never stop, never panic. Till now they’ve won against teams that they theoretically should win against without ever being totally convincing and the manager for some reason decided to try and defend a one goal lead for 35 minutes against a team who seldom fail to score at least once, in more general terms, they are good , but they are not the best, no matter how much the media tries to give that impression

This. Also I don't think Argentina were the better team overall; the decisions made towards the end/substitutions made/not made by the manager cost them this time.

They did brilliantly.

I really hope Spain win now!

They’ve played incredibly well, like others I question whether it could have gone differently if the defensive decision wasn’t made so early. But the players really put in so much.

They just aren't as good as the other teams. Spain haven't had a lose in 90 minutes against them in 37 games and Portugal were the first to score and Spain were still the much better team. France had been playing similar and strong defense and fell apart against Spain. Argentina aren't playing great football but England bottled it and tried to defend a early lead and gave them way to much space to play.

@3luckystars
It's not the op's fault you read 'fail' instead of 'fall'.
Also you can read the edited post as well - it doesn't mention failing either.

Also we are not alone in this. Most countries lose most times they play in the world cup.

The minute the coverage went back to the pundits in the studio I was really pleased that Joe Hart was so positive about the team over the whole tournament and wouldn’t let the others get in with negativity about the match. Maybe I’m weird but I felt so emotional and proud that our players weren’t drawn into Argentina’s tactics in the first quarter. I like a bit of drama but it’s a sport.

Becuase they face the other really good teams at this stage

Because they do what they always do when they go one up, play on the defense instead of attacking

Exactly this. Far too risk averse after the goal, meant we spent the end of the match basically playing in our own penalty box and it was only a matter of time before we conceded.

OP didn't say fail, she said FALL