Saka cements his position as England’s best hope for progress

The best creative attacker will most likely determine whether Gareth Southgate can finally shape a genuine champion team.

Bukayo Saka took the ball in the inside left channel, bumped away the yellow shirt at his back, and produced that familiar whipcrack turn, one of those moments where he just seems to have a strangely preternatural grasp of the physics of movement, snaking off into spaces that aren’t, technically, supposed to be there, with 40 minutes gone at Wembley Stadium. Perhaps this is one of the reasons he gets kicked so much. This problem has no logical solution.

Saka had a micro-second of processing time to consider what to do next. The ending was absurd. The left-foot shot curled across goal, starting outside the line of the post, hips opened out to create the angle. We’re aware of that angle. It’s a practice move.

The ball curled straight from Saka’s foot and continued in a cool, smooth parabola – not a swaz, swing, or dip, but a section of a perfect circle, like something drawn with an architect’s compass.

It moved slowly, a lovely orangey-white orb hanging there in the sallow evening air as necks craned, with time to relish the moment of stillness before the ball rustled the netting and the stands erupted, perhaps for the only time all afternoon, lost in their own noise.

England had already taken the lead, thanks to another Saka goal three minutes earlier, the first act in a short but sustained period of incision that sat this game down like a Vulcan death grip.

Ukraine had been doubling up on Saka since the first minute. The strategy was clear. Bring him in on his (hang on) left foot. Oh. Wait. Saka returned to his stronger side after 37 minutes and zipped a perfect flat dipping cross to the far post. Harry Kane bundled it in to extend England’s all-time scoring record.

Saka accomplished a few things during those three minutes. Most obviously, he saved an otherwise boring game. He kept England’s players from having to rely on their reserve energy reserves in a Sunday game in the middle of the season’s spring slog.

Mostly, he confirmed what was already obvious: he is now by far England’s best creative attacker, and their best hope, along with Jude Bellingham, of continuing to improve in the next 14 months and finally looking like a genuine champion team. Saka, 21, has eight goals and seven assists in 26 appearances for England. In his last seven games, he has three assists and four goals, three of which have come against France, Italy, and Germany.

Otherwise, this was mostly an exercise in maintaining appearances. England was slow at first. The day was uneventful. Ukraine was sluggish. Even the paper planes skittering down from the stands appeared uninterested. Harry Maguire moved at Triffid speed. Bellingham carried the ball well and looked like a footballing aristocrat, as he always does. James Maddison played well. He is a player who is all poise and head up passing, who has two speeds, strut and strut slightly faster, and who is basically made for this kind of occasion.

Ukraine sat in a tight 4-2-3-1 formation and waited. With 29 minutes gone, Saka was fouled for the third time, all on the right side, and began to prepare for that moment of crisis. And, of course, this was more than just a football game for Ukraine.

The anthem was one of the most moving heard at Wembley in recent memory. The blue and yellow shirts, the raised arms, the players gathered before kickoff behind a peace flag. Everything was very moving. To be honest, football also helped to smooth and enable the invasion of Ukraine in its own small way. There is some restitution to be made here. Gianni Infantino stood next to Vladimir Putin, telling the world how much he adored his new best friend. A World Cup contributed to the regime’s empowerment and strengthening. From the media on up, we all played an unwitting role in this. As a result, football has no direct influence over anything. But there is a sense of being in the wrong place, of being played, goosed, and made to sit up and beg by a warmongering despot. Russia was playing Iraq at the Gazprom Arena in Saint Petersburg as the game at Wembley began. The normalization process has resumed. At Wembley, they did play Where Is the Love by the Black Eyed Peas at halftime, so there was that.

England will not play again until the high summer double header. However, by the end, it appeared that progress had been made. Southgate’s treatment of Saka is reminiscent of a parable. England cannot take credit for his advancement. Southgate, on the other hand, has been touching and supportive while applying just the right amount of galvanizing pressure to his player. It now feels like one of the most important relationships in this team, just as Saka himself is crucial to what can be accomplished from here.