Rashford wants to go back to penalties

The World Cup has entered extra-time territory, and in England's camp at Al Wakrah, south of Doha, there is a footballer who awaits them expectantly, and with the rare hope that one will end up leading to penalties.

Marcus Rashford (Manchester, 25 years old) does not see the tiebreakers as torture, or as a lottery, but as an opportunity for redemption: "They are great moments with which I have always been comfortable," he has said these days.

"Hopefully we have another penalty in the tournament.

I'm waiting for it".

Rashford, England's top scorer in Qatar with three goals, has a score to settle with the tiebreakers.

In the final of the last European Championship he was one of the three Englishmen who missed his shot in the Wembley final.

All three suffered waves of racist attacks on social media.

For the Manchester United striker, that storm piled on top of two others in which he was already immersed.

During the lockdown, he had launched a campaign to provide food for the thousands of children who depended on free meals from the public school, closed due to the pandemic.

That made him a hero for many, but it also placed him in the target of the Boris Johnson Government, which the player targeted with his criticism.

In addition to that public feud, and the thousands of kids he helped, Rashford was dealing with a stress fracture in a vertebra.

And later, with another shoulder injury that made him reach the Eurocup in very precarious conditions.

The penalty kick at Wembley completed the tidal wave, but it also ushered in a costly comeback capped in Qatar.

In the first match against Iran, Rashford came on in the 71st minute for Bukayo Saka, another of those who missed his penalty.

At 43 seconds, he had already scored 4-0.

Harry Maguire, a teammate at United and on the national team, has seen him rise: "The main thing is to try to regain confidence in his game," he said a few days ago.

"Last year was difficult for him, but all good players get up."

Reconstruction began in the neighborhood.

Rashford was born in Manchester and began playing football on the fields of the Soccer Dome, less than four miles from Old Trafford.

Weeks after the Wembley fiasco and insults from him, he returned to the fields of his childhood with some of his then friends, including Ravel Morrison, a teammate in the academy.

There the sentimental repair began, to which the coach, Gareth Southgate, also contributed: “I went to see him in the summer, I had a long talk with him.

He was very clear about several ideas that he felt he needed to think about,” he said.

“He has been happy with his team this year, and that has been seen in training with us.

We have a completely different version of the player than the one in the Eurocup.

It's great."

It has not only adjusted the head.

Physically he looks better than ever.

In the summer he spent six days at Nike's Oregon headquarters, where he did hard work with trainers and underwent scrutiny from the innovation department.

They filled it with sensors and gutted his running technique to find a way to fine-tune it.

He spent his afternoons sprinting up a 200 meter ramp and working on finishing.

In the first days of the Premier before the break for the World Cup, Rashford already had four goals and two assists, the same as in the entire previous season.

In Qatar, he finally started the third game, against Wales, and left one of his best afternoons with the national team, where he has been the player who has generated the most danger so far.

With the score stuck at 0-0, England had a free kick and Rashford took charge.

A powerful and accurate shot that caught Ward off guard.

He celebrated it on his knees, arms raised pointing to the sky.

At that moment of liberation, Rashford remembered one of his supporters: "I lost one of my friends a couple of days ago," he said.

“He fought quite a long battle with cancer.

I'm happy to have scored for him.

He was a great support and a great friend.

I liked that he appeared in my life ”.

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