This week on Bad Dads Film Review, regular programming is temporarily suspended because the World Cup has taken over. No movie this time — instead, Sidey, Dan, Cris and Reegs look ahead to England v Argentina on Wednesday 15 July 2026, and ask the most important question in football: is it actually coming home?
What we covered
- #ICH: the birth of “It’s Coming Home” energy and why this World Cup feels different.
- England’s long road from the lows of Euro 2008, Steve McClaren’s brolly, Iceland, and the underachieving golden generation.
- Why the modern England setup has changed: St George’s Park, elite player development, the under-21 pipeline, and a squad that actually seems to like each other.
- Gareth Southgate’s legacy: restoring pride and culture, even if tactical caution may have cost England against Italy, Croatia and Spain.
- Thomas Tuchel’s England: more intensity, better defensive structure, set pieces, positive substitutions, and a clearer tactical plan.
- England’s tournament so far: not always dazzling, but resilient, adaptable and capable of raising the level when the opposition demands it.
- Hydration breaks: cynical advert break, useful tactical reset, and Dan’s preferred toilet window.
- England’s attacking identity: direct, vertical, fast and built around Kane’s movement, Bellingham’s late arrivals, and wide players who can stretch tired full-backs.
- The “starters and finishers” idea: Madueke as chaos engine, Saka as late-game punishment.
- Argentina’s threat: shithousery, tempo control, physicality, Romero, and the small matter of Lionel Messi.
- Cris’s theory that England win if they keep the tempo high and make Argentina run.
- Predictions: Cris 3–0 England, Reegs 3–2 England, Sidey/Dan closer to 1–0 or 2–1, possibly after extra time.
- Sidey’s BetBuilder: Gordon to score, Romero booked, England to go through.
Key moments / quotes
- Dan opens with the unavoidable: “It’s coming home.”
- Sidey describes it as “a change to regular programming” because the World Cup has taken over.
- The group revisits the old England problem: club rivalries, players sitting at separate tables, and a golden generation that never really became a team.
- Cris backs the development pathway argument, noting how promoting from within helped bypass old rivalries.
- Dan gives Southgate credit for putting pride back into the shirt, even if he was not always convinced by him as a manager.
- Reegs frames Tuchel’s England as reflecting “some of the best things about English football”: intensity, defensive security and set pieces.
- Cris says England are not Spain, France or Brazil in terms of central artistry — they are more direct, more vertical, more “crash bang wallop”.
- The group agrees Messi is still the great unknown: maybe the old days are gone, but nobody wants to be the team that finds out they are not.
- Sidey’s gambling-adjacent closing thought: Gordon goal, Romero yellow, England through.
Verdict
Confidence is high, but nobody is fully relaxed because England are England and Argentina are Argentina. The dads are backing England to go through, but with varying degrees of emotional self-protection.
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