Gordon attended the pre-match press conference between England and Spain on Wednesday, local time. In the first part of the press conference (due to its length, we divided it into five sections), he shared his thoughts on Kane and Yamal.

Gordon, it's good to see you.

It's good to see you.

Especially since we don't see you around England much lately, it's great to have you back. First, I'd like to talk about the World Cup. It seemed like a breakthrough tournament for you; your performance and experience were really incredible.

Thank you.

From a team perspective, there were highs and lows.

Yes.

I want to ask about the feeling of losing in the semifinals. You scored a spectacular goal in the World Cup semifinal, and it's hard to imagine how thrilling that moment was. Then everything unfolded as we saw. Tuchel said that loss left him with an indelible scar.

Exactly.

Do you think you can move past that shadow?

Honestly, I don't think so. I believe that when you lose something precious in life—whether it's a person, a match, or anything you fight for desperately—once it's gone, you're never quite the same person again.

The pain leaves scars, but scars aren't necessarily negative. You can use them to become a better person, to learn a lot about the world and about yourself. That's how I see it. I hope the team and I can grow from this rather than be defeated by it.

Very well said. The Ballon d'Or awards are approaching. Kane is supposedly the main favorite, with Yamal in second place. So we want to ask, who better than you to evaluate these two players?

I'm not the right person.

What are your thoughts then?

Honestly, it's difficult for me to judge because I haven't reached their level, but like everyone else, I'm a fan of both players. In my opinion, in terms of achievements, the final winner will definitely be one of the two. Yamal has accomplished so much at such a young age; his ability is incredible, completely on another level at this stage. It's crazy for a 19-year-old to perform like this.

Do you think he's currently the strongest player in the world?

I think so. In terms of pure individual ability, he's undoubtedly number one in my mind. But if we look at last season's performance, Kane is also extremely competitive. His season was epic, the number of goals and his contributions for us at the World Cup. Both have strong reasons to compete for the award, and I wish them both good luck.

Going back to the World Cup loss against Argentina, the most discussed topics were the team's mentality and on-field performance. Some believe your substitution may have been the turning point when the team started to drop deeper defensively. From your perspective, how do you see the team's mentality at that time? Do you think the tactics were too conservative, or was it a necessity of the situation?

It's difficult to reach a simple conclusion. That same approach helped us win the first two matches. People tend to stick with what worked. If it works, why change? The match against Mexico was the best football experience of my life. But to some extent, that match also shaped our thinking.

After the red card, we showed another side: no longer focusing on possession, but fighting with all our strength and eventually winning. But in the next two matches, we relied too heavily on that idea, and it ultimately didn't work in the semifinal. But again, even if we had kept a back four, maybe we wouldn't have won anyway. Everything is always clearer in hindsight.

Traduzido por IA.

O site do AF já está online! Acesse notícias completas, comentários, detalhes de partidas e estatísticas no seu computador. Acesse: www.allfootballapp.com