Dan Burn says England should strive to match Argentina’s team spirit

By Jonathan Veal, Press Association, Kansas City

Dan Burn has called on England to take a leaf out of Argentina’s book by forging an unbreakable team spirit as they chase World Cup glory this summer.

Thomas Tuchel’s side are one of the favourites to win the tournament in North America, having made it to back-to-back European Championship finals.

They arrived in Kansas City on Saturday, before a tornado warning later in the evening, setting up base for what they hope will be their run to victory in New Jersey on July 19th.

Defending champions Argentina are also in town and Burn has cited the South Americans as an example of how to win a tournament through team spirit.

Tuchel has spoken of creating a “brotherhood”, with Jude Bellingham suggesting that was not there in Euro 2024.

“Obviously it’s hard for me to comment on what went on when I wasn’t here,” he said.

“But we’ve made a big thing about that since the very first camp we had together, about having this brotherhood and being together.

“I feel like a lot of the time the team that end up winning tournaments like these are the teams who are close.

“If you look at Argentina at the last World Cup, you felt as if they were really fighting for each other.

“That’s what we’re wanting to do. I think it’s hard sometimes, you don’t see each other for a long amount of time and you have quite superficial conversations.

“It’s normally just like, ‘hi, how are you?’.

“But it’s about trying to get to know each other on a deeper level.”

He added: “So, what the staff have created at the hotel we’ve got now should help along with that.

“There’s people that we’ve played together with before which always helps so just keep trying to build on that.”

Burn has been a staple of Tuchel’s plans after being called up for the first time in the German’s first squad in March 2025.

His selection is widely understood to be as much about his presence in the dressing room as on the pitch.

And the 34-year-old is ready to help in any way he can, even if he does not get any minutes.

“Personally, for me, I just want to be here and help the team however possible that is, whether I start, whether I come on, whether I don’t play a minute, I’ll not feel I have contributed any less than anyone else,” he said.

“I think that’s important. I feel like this is the type of tournament where we have players who are the stars for their clubs normally, and they’re going to have to take a little bit of a different role.

“That’s leaning into that brotherhood thing again, where we are just happy for each other and happy to help out as much as we can.”