England’s Wonderwall Travels to Atlanta as Soccer Bridges a Nation’s Divide
- Frank Osborne
- Jul 13
- 3 min read
It started in Dallas, of all places, after England's opening game of the tournament. Beating Croatia 4 to 2 should have been the story of the night. Instead the story became what happened after the final whistle, when the players walked over to applaud the traveling support and the stadium speakers played Wonderwall, and both sides just kept singing once the music cut out.
Nobody choreographed that. It has not stopped since. Sweet Caroline carried the last England team through a Euro final. This is a different England, under a different manager, and this summer it has found a different song. Even Noel Gallagher, who wrote it and does not usually claim England as his team, backed the moment publicly, saying the song belongs to the supporters now.
There are very few songs that could survive an entire World Cup campaign the way this one has. This week, in Atlanta, it travels with the team into a match unlike any England has played this century.
It has been sixty years since England lifted the Jules Rimet Trophy. Sixty years of hope. Sixty years of heartbreak. The Iceland loss, penalty shootouts, losing back-to-back Euro finals, the Lampard Ghost Goal, the Trippier free kick that made everyone believe, if only for a minute.
Thomas Tuchel's side will be preparing to face Argentina and Lionel Messi, forty years after the Hand of God ended England's hopes in this same fixture, a World Cup quarterfinal Diego Maradona settled with his left hand instead of his feet. This time, though, you can feel something different in the belief that has defined this team's other anthem for thirty years, Three Lions, the song that turned frustration into a punchline. Outside England, it is often misread as arrogance or overconfidence. It is closer to the opposite, a nation laughing at its own history of near misses, a joke aimed inward rather than outward. There are very few English fans who expect success. Most are hopeful. Nearly all end most summers heartbroken.
In recent years, off the pitch England has become a mess. Political arguments dominate headlines, cost of living continues to rise, social media is becoming a battlefield, and the divide between the rich and the working class grows more and more.
But there's something about a World Cup.
Everyone unites. Problems are forgotten for the summer. All year fans of rival clubs spend the entire season wishing misery upon one another. But the arguments are paused, the flags are out and at 4 AM the pubs are packed. The billionaire, and the builder, the politician, and the plasterer, the child watching their first tournament with his grandad who remembers '66 now stand arm in arm singing 'Hey Jude.' The country that spends all year searching to disagree with each other now stands together.
Thousands of English fans will gather in Atlanta this week, having saved every penny they could for the last four years to even make it here. They won't be thinking about what is going on in Westminster, or what news story is waiting for them when they get home. They will simply be proud to be English; the mess back home can wait until the tournament ends.
On Wednesday, Atlanta will be host for the semifinal as Thomas Tuchel's men take on Messi and Argentina, looking to reach their first World Cup Final in sixty years against the reigning champions. It is a fitting stage for it, too. Atlanta has become one of America's great soccer cities because it has embraced the game long before the World Cup arrived and understands that it goes far deeper than a 90-minute match.
Football does not fix the problems going on in England. It doesn't heal a divide, lower bills or solve a political argument. But for one summer, it gives everyone something they can believe in together. Because maybe that is what a wonderwall really is after all.
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