The Weight of the World (Cup): With pressure mounting, England survived against DR Congo. Now, a much bigger challenge awaits

ATLANTA — The celebration started with “Three Lions,” the 30-year-old song whose lilting chorus — “It’s coming home” — has become the cultural rallying cry for England’s six-decade quest to win another World Cup trophy. From there, the fans sang along to “Wonderwall,” nodding to a fist-pumping Harry Kane on a day where the lyrics “Maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me…” seemed particularly appropriate. Then it was “Sweet Caroline,” an adopted song Brits never need an excuse to belt out, followed by “Hey Jude” as the seats began to empty. When England wins at the World Cup, it’s one joyous anthem after another. But when it plays at the World Cup, there is a heaviness unlike anything else in sports. For the first hour-and-a-half of England’s Round of 32 victory over DR Congo , the outright dread permeating through Atlanta Stadium was as thick as a Georgia summer and as comfortable as a dentist’s chair. Imagine the insane expectations of Alabama football, the psychological trauma of the Chicago Cubs between 1908 and 2016 and the molecular-level media coverage of the LeBron James-era Miami Heat all rolled into one team — only 1,000 times more intense. That’s England at the World Cup. With every erratic pass, every defensive breakdown, every questionable referee call, you can see a team giving itself a psychiatric examination and feel a nation turn into a groan. If Kane hadn’t broken free from all of that with two spectacular late goals, the England fans who filled this stadium would not have left singing “Sweet Caroline” but rather arguing about whether they owned the most embarrassing loss in World Cup history. “What a crazy game,” Kane said. “To come back in the way we did is extremely pleasing and makes me proud of the group, proud of the boys. To help the team over the line is a magical feeling and I know everybody back home watching celebrated in the pubs, and rightly so.” Here’s the bad part for England, though: The celebration doesn’t last long and that angst never goes away, at least not until they win this thing for the first time since 1966. It’s the price of inventing the game, of caring as much as they do, of a drought that swings on such small margins every four years. England's Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham celebrate during their team's win over DR Congo on July 1. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images) Ian MacNicol via Getty Images It’s also why England coach Thomas Tuchel was fighting so hard against that notion after their 2-1 victory. He knows he has a team stacked with talent from top to bottom. He also knows that at this stage of the World Cup, the pressure cooker is as formidable an opponent as any team left in the bracket. “I did not see any of that today and it would be so easy to see it,” Tuchel said. “It would be so easy to give in and accept that narrative. I didn’t see it, and that’s a very, very good sign.” Tuchel is obviously correct that despite giving up an early goal and watching Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi make a handful of spectacular saves, England kept coming in waves. But to deny that there was a bit of panic in their play for the first 70-plus minutes would be like saying they would have preferred to play outdoors in the 95-degree heat Wednesday rather than underneath one of the biggest air conditioning systems in America. You can say it, but nobody will believe it — not when Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford are clearly uncomfortable and pressing to make plays that aren’t there, not when DR Congo came within a nicked goalpost of taking a 2-0 lead and probably ending their World Cup, not when England fans are booing the team going into the first hydration break, not when British reporters are musing in the press box about Tuchel’s imminent firing if the game kept going the way it was going. “It’s so good to get this feeling on the sideline as a coach because while you’re trying to help and support, you get the feeling players are free,” Tuchel said. “We didn’t play with fear, we played with determination and then just didn’t accept [a loss] and we know that these knockout matches in this part of the tournament, you need to just find a way. “We trusted our spirit and we brought the right spirit and the right energy to a stadium and the dressing room and that’s the big takeaway for today.” Back here in reality, there is little Tuchel can do to free his team of that pressure because it’s practically a patch on the uniform. But in an interesting twist of fate, the World Cup schedulers may at least temporarily do it for him. Next up for England is Mexico on Sunday at Estadio Azteca . With the heat, the altitude and the atmosphere in Mexico City, it’s arguably the worst Round of 16 draw any team could have at this stage of the World Cup. “There will be a lot of obstacles waiting for us,” Tuchel said. “But we have the ideal platform now to genuinely believe we are ready for that and when the going gets tough that we’ll find the answers.” Against a team of Mexico’s quality, England won’t be able to afford a nervous, stumbling 30 minutes like it had at the beginning against DR Congo. But the occasion could be a brief respite from the 60-year reality of English soccer: For once, Tuchel will be able to cast his team as the scrappy underdogs trying to survive the viper pit rather than the club that’s supposed to bring the trophy home. England, of course, will need to be sharper than it was Wednesday to turn its World Cup goals into reality. But in this tournament, the only alternative to singing an anthem as you leave the field is getting on a flight home. As stressful as it felt at times, England managed to delay that inevitability for at least a few more days.