Tuchel still hasn't gotten over England's collapse against Argentina at the 2026 World Cup

Some defeats fade with time, and others move in for good. England's loss to Argentina in the semifinals of the 2026 World Cup looks like the latter kind. More than two months have passed since that 2-1 defeat in Atlanta, and Thomas Tuchel still hasn't found a way to shake it off.

The German coach spoke about the match in Reflections, a documentary produced by the English Football Association, and he didn't hold back. He talked about a wound that hasn't closed, the kind you carry around even after the scoreline itself has become old news.

It's my scar. It's the players' scar. I have to live with it. Nobody is hurting more than me.Thomas Tuchel

To understand why that night still weighs on him so heavily, you have to go back to the moment that changed everything. England had gone 1-0 up thanks to a goal from Anthony Gordon, and with several minutes still left to play, Tuchel decided to pull the team back to protect the lead. He shored up the defense and tried to shut down space. But Argentina didn't sit around waiting: they kept pushing further and further toward Jordan Pickford's goal until they turned the result around with goals from Enzo Fernández and Lautaro Martínez.

The doubt that won't go away

Tuchel was honest about how hard it is to live with that "what if." He admitted he could spend a lifetime picturing a different match, but he also made clear that kind of certainty simply doesn't exist.

Now I could torture myself endlessly and think: 'If I had made different substitutions, we would have won the game.' But you just don't know.Thomas Tuchel

The coach explained that his moves didn't come out of nowhere: they were a response to the pressure Argentina started applying in that final stretch. He described his England side as a team that, in that moment, seemed to be "waiting to die" in the face of the wave of attacking substitutions Lionel Scaloni kept sending on.

The level of madness that Argentina brought, substitution after substitution, one attacking change after another. They never would have made those changes if they hadn't been 1-0 down. It was a 3-1-6.Thomas Tuchel

Beyond the pain of the result, Tuchel also stopped to acknowledge something: Argentina's willingness to risk everything when the match got difficult for them. He spoke about the identity his own team tries to hold onto, but admitted that the other side had something similar, and perhaps with an extra edge to it.

We trust in our brotherhood, our mentality and our individual quality. Argentina has all of that too: brotherhood, mentality. For them it means so much, especially against England.Thomas Tuchel

The German didn't dodge responsibility. It was he who made the call to sit back, and it was he who ended up paying the price when the match slipped away from him.

I'm in charge and I make these decisions. Nobody is hurting more than me, nobody wanted it more than me.Thomas Tuchel

There's no guarantee a more attacking approach would have changed the ending. England could well have lost anyway. What remains, for Tuchel, is that scar he still isn't quite sure how to carry.