Bukayo Saka made the long walk to the center circle, placed the ball on the mark, took five steps back and took his stance.
It’s the penalty shootout of the Euro quarterfinal where England was up 2-1, seeking to take a two-nil advantage. He waited a good while to set himself up and blew out his cheeks before he rolled the ball into the net to wrongfoot Yann Sommer. When he turned around, he flashed a wide smile towards the bench, while pumping his fist.
“That smile. I love that smile! That smile is a thing of beauty!” exclaimed Gary Neville on ITV.
David Beckham wrote on Instagram, “That’s the smile we all needed to see.”
It was as if the whole of England, even putting aside the club rivalries, had wanted Saka to have this moment.
“He’s just that perfect boy which you wish will either be your son or your brother who’s just been brought up the right way,” is how Arsenal and England teammate Aaron Ramsdale describes him.
Manchester United defender Luke Shaw has a glint in his eyes everytime he speaks of Saka.
England won on penalties and reached another major tournament semifinal, but this was Saka’s moment of catharsis.
A little while ago, 1,092 days to be precise, the lasting image of Saka in an England shirt was him standing alone, holding his face in horror in the penalty box, as a stream of joyous Italians ran past him in celebration. His decisive penalty meant England lost out on the European Championship at Wembley. Even in that moment, Saka says he knew what was coming his way.
Saka, along with Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, the three players of colour, who missed their kicks that night, were subjected to racist abuse online in the aftermath. Saka was only 19, playing in his eighth senior England game. All the promise shown and his efforts in taking England to its first final in 55 years, seemed to be washed over with that one miss.
Saka, though, has put it behind him by putting himself back in the same place. Since the 2021-22 season, he has taken up the mantle of being Arsenal’s lead penalty taker, with a success rate of 10 conversions out of 11.
England‘s Bukayo Saka, center, is comforted after he missed to score the last penalty during the penalty shootout of the Euro 2020 football championship final between England and Italy at Wembley stadium in London. | Photo Credit: AP
“It’s [pressure] something I embrace,” said Saka, after the win against Switzerland. “You can fail once but you have a choice whether to put yourself in that position or not again. I am a guy who is going to put myself in that position.”
The penalty miss wasn’t the only thing people will remember from the final in 2021. Saka was looking to break down the right flank for England’s last chance of winning it in the added time of regulation 90 minutes when he was comically halted in his tracks by a man-mountain figure of Giorgio Chiellini.
Saka was held back by Chiellini’s right arm clutching his shirt, an image akin to a scene from a Looney Tunes cartoon sketch. Unable to escape his clutches, Saka comically went down, showing that the wirey winger was still a boy against the battle-hardened men of senior-level international football.
England fans called it the ‘most cynical foul in history’. One Italian fan got the image tattooed on his body, with the European Championship trophy escaping from Saka’s grasp. Chiellini later said, “This became the symbol of Euro 2020 as a whole”, while jokingly adding, “I grabbed him good!”
Bukayo Saka is cynically fouled by Giorgio Chiellini during the UEFA Euro 2020 Championship Final between Italy and England at Wembley Stadium. | Photo Credit: Laurence Griffiths
Being a gifted winger with a bag of tricks brings with it plenty of attention from the defenders entrusted with keeping them quiet. And over the years, Saka has grown used to this spotlight (or kicks and hacks in this instance) and is revelling under it. In the last three Premier League seasons, he has been fouled 193 times – third-highest in the league. Apart from his gifted talent, Saka has put in the work away from the pitch, to ensure that his body and his game are adaptable to the challenges of senior-level football.
Dr Gary O’Driscoll, Arsenal’s head of sports medicine and performance, told Arsenal.com, “If you look at the stats, I think he’s one of the most fouled players in the Premier League, but what’s for sure is that he has adapted his physique to be able to cope with that. Apart from his physical development, Bukayo has the most remarkable capacity, mentally, to take on what we’re asking him to do. If we ask him to improve his lifting, to add some strength or improve his core – he just does it. Not every player is able to do that, as much as they might try.”
Against Switzerland, Saka’s improved strength and direct play were there for everyone to see when he repeatedly skinned Michel Aebischer. The latter tried to pull him, but Saka held on, the Swiss defender looked to take a swipe at him, but Saka skipped past him. The Swiss tried to double-team down the flank, but still, Saka stood his ground. He finished the game with 10 successful duels.
Players of England react as Trent Alexander-Arnold of England takes the team’s fifth and winning penalty. | Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES
But England needed him the most in front of the goal when it went behind with 15 minutes left on the clock, in what was another amalgamation of talented players chucked together, which posed more questions than answers. Until then, Saka had been hugging the wings, beating his markers and playing in cutbacks or crosses into a congested box packed with Switzerland defenders.
And just as the clock was about to strike 80 minutes, Saka, once again, came to the rescue. Declan Rice found him on the right side outside the box, and darted down the channel, creating space for his Arsenal teammate to run into. Saka cut in and unleashed a speculative low drive, which remarkably found its way past nine Swiss outfielders and goalkeeper to crash against the inside of the post and into the net.
Saka’s latest saviour act has been in keeping with England’s troubling pattern in recent games. The goal was England’s first shot on target, similar to Jude Bellingham’s stoppage-time overhead kick against Slovakia.
But the England manager and the players certainly don’t care how they get it done. In tournament football, the only thing that matters is wins and England seems to be making a happy habit out of it in recent years.
With another semifinal spot sealed, Saka, after having banished his past ghosts, believes another history correction is due for both him and England.
As Saka put it, “There’s two more games until we change over lives.”
Comments
SHARE