England's goalless draw with Ghana revives the old second-game syndrome — and raises a refereeing question

England are still looking for a goal at this World Cup. A second consecutive Group L fixture at the FIFA tournament in the United States ended without a score at the Boston stadium on Tuesday, the 0-0 draw against Ghana leaving Thomas Tuchel's side with one point from two matches and a referee review that will not be forgotten quickly.

The result, dropped at full time around 22:00 UTC on 23 June 2026, gives England four successive major tournaments in which a "second game" has troubled them, a pattern now familiar enough to be a syndrome rather than a coincidence. With one match of the group stage remaining, finishing top is no longer in England's hands alone.

A flat performance that had been on the way

The line was well-worn before a ball was kicked: England, under a new manager in a new tournament setting, almost always find their second fixture of a group stage the hardest to win. The 0-0 against Ghana did not disprove that instinct. According to the BBC report filed on the night, Tuchel's side were "uninspiring" in spells, with Ghana's shape and physicality denying England the kind of controlled possession that the opening fixture against Croatia had produced in parts. The visitors, for their part, looked comfortable on the break and were clearly content to slow the tempo when given the chance.

The match came to life only at the margins. There were flashes from England's forward line, a handful of set-pieces that briefly lifted the decibel count, and the constant sub-plot of Ghanaian counter-attacks that suggested England were playing into the Black Stars' preferred pattern more often than they would have liked.

The penalty that may or may not have been

The flashpoint arrived late. With the game already drifting towards a draw, Ghana's Prince Adu ran onto a ball in behind England's back line and was met by a last-ditch challenge from Ezri Konsa. The contact was enough to send Adu to the turf; whether it was enough to send the referee to his pocket for a penalty, or to the monitor for a review, is now the live debate. The official waved play on; the question, as the BBC framed it in the 23 June bulletin, is whether he should have done.

It is the kind of marginal call that VAR, in its current form, was supposed to settle cleanly. Instead, the incident has joined a growing catalogue of tournament moments in which the technology's silence on a borderline incident leaves the post-match conversation louder than the on-pitch action. The angle shown in replays suggested contact; it did not unambiguously suggest intent; and the rest is now a matter of interpretation, tribal loyalty, and group-stage arithmetic.

What England actually need to do now

The shape of the problem is straightforward. A draw leaves England on one point from two games in Group L. To be certain of a place in the knockout rounds, they will need to win the final group fixture — and they may need the rest of the group to behave as well. A top finish is no longer under their sole control; whether that is destabilising depends on who one expects to be sitting atop the table.

There is also the question of identity. Tuchel's reputation was built on control, on defensive solidity, on the unglamorous work that lets creative talent flourish. In this game he got only the first of those. There were periods when England could not keep the ball, others when they could not win it back, and too many minutes in which Ghana looked the more settled of two sides who, on paper, were supposed to be several tiers apart.

The pattern, and what it is worth

Second-game syndrome is one of those phrases that is too tidy to be properly empirical and too consistent to be entirely folkloric. The 2014 World Cup, the 2016 European Championship, the 2022 World Cup — each in its way featured an England side that won its opener and then stalled. The 0-0 against Ghana, played 23 June 2026, slots neatly into that run.

That is not, on its own, proof of a deeper problem. It may simply be that England, when favourites, attract opponents who set up to frustrate them in the second match of a campaign; that the rhythm of tournament football punishes slow starters; that the gap between a talented squad and a functioning team is, in international football, exactly the gap that second games expose. Whatever the explanation, the symptom now has another data point.

This publication framed Tuesday's match around the second-game question and the late penalty flashpoint rather than the wider tournament picture. The wire lead focused on the result and the knock-on effect on the group table; BBC Sport concentrated the analysis on the Konsa–Adu incident and Ghana's resistance. Both lines are accurate; they are not the same line.