There is a particular kind of frustration that belongs exclusively to football - not the sharp, clarifying pain of a goal conceded or a red card, but the slow, airless suffocation of an opponent who has decided that the most honourable thing they can do is exist. Ghana did not come to Foxborough to play football so much as to prevent it. Ten men behind the ball, a defensive line so compressed it seemed to be holding its breath, and a collective willingness to absorb whatever England could produce for as long as the clock demanded. It was, in its way, admirably executed. It was also deeply, magnificently tedious.
England's problem was not desire but imagination. Noni Madueke, operating down the right with the air of a man searching for a door that has been bricked over, offered industry without penetration. Anthony Gordon, meanwhile, seemed to exist in a different match entirely - present in body, absent in influence, his movements failing to disturb Ghana's defensive geometry in any meaningful sense. And then there was Kane. Three minutes from time, with the crossbar still vibrating from Nico O'Reilly's header, the ball dropped to England's captain - six yards out, goal gaping. He skied it. Over the bar and into the Boston night, as though the weight of expectation had briefly overridden the muscle memory of a man who has scored eighty-one goals for his country.
The pattern - brilliant first game, stifled second - has now visited England for the fourth consecutive major tournament. Tuchel was appointed precisely to interrupt that rhythm, and Panama, at least, offers a more inviting proposition. Already eliminated after defeats to both Ghana and Croatia, Thomas Christiansen's side arrive at MetLife Stadium with nothing to protect and very little to threaten. Their attacking third has been the group's most barren — zero goals scored, a squad whose depth in the final third remains, even generously assessed, a significant limitation. Adalberto Carrasquilla will probe and harry from midfield as he always does, but Carrasquilla without genuine runners ahead of him is rather like a conductor with no orchestra - technically accomplished, ultimately inaudible.
Where England must succeed is in the spaces Panama leave when they attempt to build. Unlike Ghana, who simply refused to engage, Panama have shown a willingness to play out from the back - an approach that can falter badly against a high press. Bellingham arriving late, Kane in the channels, Saka cutting inside - these are not mysteries to be solved but familiar patterns waiting to be released against an opponent with neither the personnel nor the points to resist them. Panama offers an open door. After an evening spent staring at walls in Foxborough, England would do well to walk through it.