England's World Cup 2026 opener against Croatia in Dallas was supposed to be a tone-setter. It turned into a track meet. Kane converted a retaken penalty inside the opening minutes, added a second before halftime, and Croatia refused to go away — pulling one back in first-half stoppage time to send everyone into the break tied 2-2 with the kind of momentum swing that breaks parlays in half.
Kane's second goal capped a wild opening 45 and put England back in front before the equalizer landed.
The penalty drama earlier was its own bit. Kane's first attempt got everyone in the cave out of their seats thinking the keeper had bailed Croatia out, only for the ref to order a retake. Zah, who has never met an England side he liked, was the loudest voice in the room, and the premature-celebration-to-deflation arc on the couch told the whole story before Kane calmly buried the do-over.
The watch-along crew erupts on the PK save, then slumps when the retake gets called.
Croatia's late first-half goal flipped the building. A scrappy goalmouth scramble, a Croatia #26 wheeling away screaming, and suddenly a game England looked to be cruising in was a coin flip heading into the second 45. Dave Portnoy was already joking Sir Harry might need to score 7 to win this one, and for about 20 minutes that didn't feel like a joke.
Croatia's stoppage-time leveler before the break sets up a wide-open second half.
England answered to open the second half, then Rashford slammed the dagger in around the 85th minute — a clean finish past the Croatia keeper to push it to 4-2 and finally take the air out of the comeback. The Pepsi-DraftKings cave in the Barstool studio went fully feral, and Greg ripped the hand-crank siren like England had already lifted the trophy.
Rashford's late finish makes it 4-2 and ends the suspense.
PFT was already in full "it's coming home" mode by the final whistle, which is the kind of energy that ages either beautifully or like milk depending on what happens in the knockouts. But for one Tuesday in Dallas, England got the 3 points, Kane reminded everyone he's still the guy, and the World Cup opener delivered exactly the kind of chaos that makes group stage worth watching.