World Cup 2018: England vs Colombia, Harry Kane does it again

England have had better strikers, and captains with more craft and class. But Harry Kane’s sheer will to win is unmatched.

Harry Kane is having the kind of career about which many stories will be told; one for the England football annals and, if they still produce them, boys’ English football annuals. And here is one story - from Richie Wellens.

Wellens was a senior pro at Leicester City when Kane joined the club on loan. Kane was 19, a rose-cheeked, clean-cut, Premier League academy boy. His previous loan had been a near-disastrous sojourn at Norwich City and the pros such as Wellens in a hard-bitten Leicester dressing room were not sure what to expect.

Leicester were in the Championship, pushing for promotion and in the usual Championship scrap and Derby County away was a bad day: Leicester were beaten and dropped out of the top two. The dressing room was quiet when suddenly the new kid stood up. “Listen, lads, I don’t want to be in the Championship, I want to be Premier League. All of us do. We need to start pulling together.” Kane said.

Wellens recalls two reactions. The first one that he and the other pros had: who does this boy think he is? But then a second response: you drove home thinking about it and thought what character he’d showed. Adds Wellens, “when I look at Harry today, his determination to get there remains his biggest asset.”

Maybe this is the truth of Harry Kane. England has had more gifted forwards, faster, technically better strikers. England have had captains with more craft and class. England have had icons with more dazzling profiles.

Kane matches any of the forerunners for character, for mentality, for professionalism, for sheer dogged belief. At Spartak Stadium, where a tough and talented Colombia made the going almost excruciatingly hard for Gareth Southgate’s team at times, Kane stepped up. He wanted to do that for England in this tournament and time upon time has delivered.

He delivered with, as nearly always, it seems, a goal - his 52nd for club and country in 2017-18. It was another penalty but few have been stuck away for England in more trying circumstances. Nil-nil, deep into the country’s first round-of-16 game in eight years, and against the backdrop so taught and fraught.

The Daily Mirror’s front page.

Taught because of the evenly matched nature of two hyper-competitive teams. Fraught, because of the gamesmanship, the wiles and the intermittent brutality with which Colombia were testing England. Before his spot kick Kane had a long wait as Mark Geiger, the unauthoritative American referee, attempted in his flimsy way to deal with the protesting Colombians.

He faced David Ospina, a goalkeeper who knows him well from the Premier League and behind the end he shot in to was a sea of expectant, beseeching England fans. Kane was nerveless, unerring. After that curious, elbows-out, quick-steps, little jiggle on the spot that he does, he strode forward and smashed his effort high into the centre of Ospina’s goal. That put him out on his own at the top of the Golden Boot standings and level with the six strikes that brought Gary Lineker the award at the 1986 finals in Mexico. It is natural that goals are how Kane is measured - but there was so much more he brought to his work on this giddy night.

Part of The Sun’s match preview involved sending someone to Bogota and to Carlos Valderrama’s home town and the reporter came back with tales of how Colombia was scared of Kane. They were not - Yerry Mina and Davinson Sanchez look like they wouldn’t be scared if they had to mark Godzilla - but nor was Kane in any way scared of them.

How The Sun reacted.

He needed his courage. Time and again he received the ball with one of the giant centre backs, or some other Colombian, right up his backside, pushing and nibbling at him. Time and again, he managed to hold it up and bring a team-mate in to play.

He was wrestled at set pieces, he was targeted with tackles. He did not flinch. He stayed calm. His example, as captain to a young side, was necessary.

Other stories when you talk to people about Kane’s several loan spells, before making finally it at Tottenham, is of how intelligent a footballer he seemed. Both at Leyton Orient and then Millwall, his first two loan clubs, he ended up at No 10, seen as more of a Teddy Sheringham than an Alan Shearer, for his ability to drop deep, receive and hold possession, and feed forwards in front of him.

Here, England dropped back, as the pressure came on, Kane roamed into midfield to help try to keep the ball. And after Jamie Vardy came on for Dele Alli he was no longer the focal point of the attack, having to play behind and to the side of his new colleague. He was excellent - twice in extra time playing wonderful passes through.

They did not produce goals for England last night but as the match wound down and the inevitability of penalties beckoned, you knew that Kane would get another opportunity to score himself. Radamel Falcao went first for Colombia and netted emphatically. So then Kane, in the key first-taker role.

His walk was slow, sure - nerves, what nerves? He faced Ospina again, this time with all the Colombian supporters in their end behind that goal, goading him. A deep breath. Those elbows. The quick steps. The jiggle again. Then up to the spot - bang, bottom corner. Magnificent. Captain Kane.

The Times