Dele Alli and England Drop Their Guard and Their Past

Dele Alli in action for England during an exhibition match against Nigeria earlier this month at Wembley Stadium in London.LONDON — Dele Alli’s first memory of England at a World Cup is not of a goal or of a game. He cannot even place it to a specific tournament, not exactly. His best guess is 2006, when he would have just turned 10, but he cannot say for certain that it was not a couple of years earlier, at the European Championships of 2004. Both would fit the time frame: old enough to remember the outline, young enough to forget the detail.

Whichever is correct, it is not the events on the field — England, for the record, was eliminated in both years on a shootout, in the quarterfinals,…