England may not have won the 2018 World Cup as their fans dreamed that they might, but at least they won one World Cup 2018 award. Harry Kane finished the tournament with six goals, two clear of any other player to win the World Cup Golden Boot.
The England captain had missed out on the similar English Premier League award last season, despite a hatful of goals. He made sure of victory this time though even if he wasn’t the most consistent of strikers the 2018 World Cup saw.
Fantastic Start for Kane
England’s group saw them take on Tunisia, Panama and Belgium as they bid to avoid failing to make the group stages as it happened in 2014. They avoided that fate by winning both of their opening games and it was Kane who was in fantastic scoring form as he made himself the clear favourite to win the Adidas Golden Boot award.
The opening fixture against Tunisia saw Kane score in the first half to give England the lead and he then popped up right at the death to get them a 2-1 victory. More was to come in the second game against a weak Panama side. England was in awesome form scoring five times in the first half and eventually winning 6-1. Kane hit a hat-trick in that match with two of his goals were penalties and that took him to five goals in two matches.
Opposition Just couldn’t Catch Him
Those five goals took him ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo who had scored four goals in his first two games for Portugal. The Portuguese star had hit a hat-trick in his opening match against Spain and then scored the winner against Morocco, but the scoring feats of England’s captain left Ronaldo trailing whose chance of winning the Adidas Golden Boot award died when Portugal was knocked out in the last sixteen.
Romelu Lukaku also prospered against the weaker opposition in their group scoring twice in each of Belgium’s games against Panama and Tunisia. The total of four goals in two games put him in with a good chance of winning the World Cup Golden Boot however no more goals were to come from the Belgian and he finished third in the list.
Antoine Griezmann went above Lukaku to finish second in the Adidas Golden Boot award. The French World Cup winner scored four goals but finished above Lukaku as he had two assists compared to one for the Belgian. His only goal in the group stages was a penalty in the win over Australia. In the knock-out stages, he scored in the last sixteen, quarter-final and final with his goal against Uruguay in the last eight, his only one that wasn’t from the penalty spot. Russian Denis Cheryshev, Cristiano Ronaldo (who only played four games) and Kylian Mbappe also scored four goals but had no assists.
Tinge of Disappointment
Kane is the first English player since Gary Lineker in 1986 to win the Golden Boot Award. He’ll probably be slightly disappointed with only managing six goals in the tournament after his great start to the tournament. He didn’t play in England’s final group match against Belgium with his team already qualified.
The knock-out stages saw him play four times, but his only goal was a penalty in the game against Colombia in the last sixteen. His 2018 World Cup award has at least helped to ease the pain of his last major tournament when he failed to impress at the 2016 European championships and at just 24, he’s young enough to play in another couple of World Cup tournaments, so is full of potential.