Pete Crow-Amstrong hates to pick against Lionel Messi, but give him England at World Cup

The USA is currently suffering from what can be called the FIFA World Cup fever, and the big carnival is now nearing its end as the second of the semifinals will be played between England and Argentina, the winner of which will take on Spain for the crown. And well, the Chicago Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong is backing England to win their big game against the defending champions, per a post on X by Fox Sports.

PCA claimed that he did not want Lionel Messi to be eliminated from anything considering he was one of the greatest athletes of all time, but wants to see England do well.

Who's PCA rooting for in Wednesday's FIFA World Cup Semifinal between England and Argentina? pic.twitter.com/bZ18acpBgL

— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) July 15, 2026

“You never wanna see Messi get eliminated from anything. That guy is, he is one of the best athletes ever and just a joy to watch but I got to see England do it, I love what Jude Bellingham’s doing, Harry Kane still leading the squad, so I think England should do it,” he said.

And well, he has every right to believe in what he said. Argentina have the 38-year-old Messi still leading from the front with eight goals, joint-top in the Golden Boot race with Kylian Mbappe, who will play against the loser from this game in the third-place showdown.

However, it does feel like England have what it takes to go all the way this year. Just as PCA pointed out, Jude Bellingham has undoubtedly been inspirational, coming up with goals and finding everything, from long passes to through balls to important defensive interjections at the tournament. Kane, meanwhile, has played like the superstar he is, arguably in the midst of his best tournament in an England shirt. The Bayern Munich man has always found the net regularly and is the highest goal scorer in his nation’s history, with 85 in 120 appearances.

However, this is the first time that he appears to be playing in a team tooled to get exactly the best out of him. Bellingham has stepped up and has found the space to attack due to Kane’s tendency to drop deep, and Tuchel’s insistence on deploying runners on the wings has been obvious due to the continued inclusion of Anthony Gordon and Noni Madueke over the likes of Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka even, at times.

This England team has done it all in a bid to get the best out of their best players, something Gareth Southgate was guilty of not doing during his tenure at the helm. Kane is not just an out and out striker, and Tuchel’s willingness to embrace that has been aptly rewarded thus far. Everything else has been a direct result of the coach’s desire to get the best out of Bellingham and Kane, and that approach may as well result in the World Cup, finally for real, coming home.

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