Now, this isn't going to be one of those posts where I sit and gush about this particular player like he owns the world. But unless you've been living under a rock, it's hard to not know anything about the young player that is taking England by storm.
The obvious place to start is that he has only been a part of the Spurs set up for less than 6 months and he got his first England full team call up at the beginning of the week. Everyone was expecting him to start the match, and he probably should have due to the season that he's having, but had to wait to make his full debut. Plus, to top all of this off, I don't think any other substitution has had such an anticipated entrance or a bigger ovation as they walked onto the pitch.
He has already scored 34 goals this season, 29 of those being for Spurs and the other 5 for the England under 21's, but that isn't the only ability that he relies on. His hold up play and his pressing of the defenders is everything that an opposition defender hates in a player. It has been said that he has worked extremely hard on his game by a lot of people who he works with, and it is paying off greatly for him, much to the excitement of England fans around the country.
However, people may be calling for his full team debut to happen in the game against Lithuania, but it's almost as if they forget who else is in the team. He has to battle against Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Raheem Sterling and Theo Walcott for his starting place, but I'm sure he's relishing this challenge, just as much as the rest of the dream. Rooney is chasing down a record of most goals scored in an England shirt (47 goals now, after he scored against Lithuania) and he is also the captain of the team, but a partnership between the two would look to be deadly to their oppositions.
In the build-up to the game, he was the first name on everybody's lips and audiences all around the country were ready to see the man in action on the international stage. People were predicting at which point during the game he would come on and what kind of impact he would have when he finally pulled on that England shirt for the first time. Still, at half time with the home team 2-0 up, it only made the anticipation higher as England were in control and he would have the chance to build upon the success that his team was experiencing.
Then, finally, he was ready. The only thing holding him back now was the fact that the ball didn't come off the pitch for 7 minutes after he was ready to enter the field. And the impact everyone had been waiting for since the team sheet was announced? Well, that arrived within the first 80 seconds of his game, after he'd taken just 3 touches...
Sterling's assist came down perfectly for Kane, who put just enough power behind his header to get it over the line, despite the best efforts of the keeper. His movement off the ball during the build-up to the goal was what caught out the defender that he was tracking. He hovered along the left side of the 6 yard box for quite a long time before the ball was ever crossed into the box, but the defender didn't get close to him even when the ball did finally come towards. Nothing can be taken away from Kane though, and after the season he's having, I don't think anyone will be surprised by what happened for him.
Everything that he touches at the minute seems to turn to gold without him having to try too hard. Roy Hodgson did say after the game that he didn't want to put too much pressure on Kane by saying that he was going to be a true England player and an important one for them in the future, and he possibly has a point. If people truly want to see the best of him in the upcoming games, for both club and country, people should just enjoy watching his talents instead of piling pressure onto his performance. After the season he's had, it looks like he's going to be comfortable no matter where he is performing.
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