And on the fifth day of the 2018 World Cup, that great, recurring soap opera of international sports finally got its chance to begin again: The not-so-mighty but ever-hopeful England national team took the field.
Thousands of red-and-white clad fans had descended on this riverside city once known as Stalingrad for England’s Monday night match against Tunisia. What they got was a nail-biting 2-1 victory that suggested that this time, as they have been promised, it is really is going to be different for England. Harry Kane’s header from four yards off a corner kick seconds into stoppage time saved what for nearly an hour was going to be the next chapter in England’s major competition melodrama.