Thomas Tuchel Reflects on England's World Cup Triumph
Thomas Tuchel still thinks about the grass.
Not the tactics board, not the heat in Mexico City, not even the noise when the final whistle went. The grass. The pitch England defended with 10 men as they pulled off one of the most remarkable World Cup wins in their history – a 3-2 victory over hosts Mexico in last summer’s last-16 tie.
When it was over, Tuchel didn’t grab a souvenir shirt or a match ball. He walked off with only the memory. And that, he now admits, didn’t feel like enough.
“I texted a friend after the match and I just wrote, I regret that I didn't eat some grass after the match to keep something from this in my body forever,” the England manager told former Three Lions striker Daniel Sturridge in an interview for the Football Association. “That was the feeling. That was the moment.”
A night that stitched a team together
England’s run at that World Cup ended in the semi-finals, a familiar kind of heartbreak. Yet the night in Mexico City sits apart – a defiant, backs-to-the-wall performance that, in Tuchel’s mind, welded this group into something different.
“This game had so much of what you could wish for,” he said.
The bond he talks about wasn’t just visible in the football. It came in a split-second of chaos during the celebrations, when Jordan Henderson tried to vault an advertising hoarding, landed awkwardly and broke his arm.
“If you needed any proof of what it meant to these players and how they were with each other, it was the moment when Jordan fell over and broke his arm,” Tuchel said.
“Within a second, the players were there. Every single player was there stopping the celebrations, building a shield, protecting Jordan – not going nowhere, in full empathy. It was just so special.”
No grand speeches. No slogans. Just instinct. A team that had spent a month living together, suffering together, reacting as one.
‘They are my players now’
That night, Tuchel believes, changed his relationship with the squad. The German coach, once the outsider in charge of England’s national team, now talks like a man who feels fully embedded in the fabric of it.
“It created a huge bond to these players,” he said. “It feels like they are my players now. This is the beauty of it.
“You have success and you have painful moments together, but you have so much time together and then you create a natural bond. So I'm happy to see them. I'm happy to challenge them, happy to push them, and very proud to be a part of that.”
The pride is real, but so is the edge. Tuchel is not treating Mexico as a one-off epic to be framed and hung on the wall. He sees it as a starting point.
From Mexico to Euro 2028
The next target is clear: qualify for Euro 2028 and then attack a home tournament, one that England will co-host and one that will define this generation.
Tuchel wants to carry the emotion of Mexico into something more structured, more sustained.
“I'm very excited,” he said. “I think we got another step closer and I think we're there.”
Preparation, he knows, will look different this time. The World Cup in the United States posed unique challenges – travel, climate, logistics. The Euros, he argues, are a different kind of puzzle.
“It's very difficult to prepare for a World Cup in the US, but I think it's possible to prepare for a Euros and we prepare in Nations League Tier One,” Tuchel said.
That is where the next block of work begins. England return later this month with a heavyweight test: world champions Spain at home in the Uefa Nations League. Then come a trip to Croatia and home-and-away meetings with the Czech Republic during the international break.
Tuchel will name his squad on Friday. The message to those called up will be simple enough: build on what has already been done.
“The target is to have another 10 matches,” he said. “We had 10 matches in the US – eight wins, one draw, one painful loss. That is something to build on.
“We all have the right to hold our heads high and go with courage and positivity into the next challenges. We have four matches in Nations League coming up, and that's where the focus is.”
No grass this time. Just points, performances and the long road towards a European Championship on home soil – where memories like Mexico won’t just be cherished, they’ll be demanded.
