A Kansas City base camp, six match cities and a distance roughly equivalent to a return flight from London to Los Angeles — England’s punishing route to the World Cup quarter-finals has already taken them almost 11,000 miles. France, meanwhile, with a place in the last four secured, have had their feet up, having travelled fewer than 2,000 miles. At the biggest World Cup ever staged, the eight quarter-finalists have taken wildly different paths across North America, from France’s east-coast corridor to Switzerland’s “venue hopping” and Spain’s post-group-stage move from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Los Angeles, then Dallas and back again.For some teams, the tournament has been a commute — for others, it has been a continent-sized obstacle course.The Athletic calculated the estimated straight-line distance travelled by the quarter-finalists from the start of the tournament to their last-eight venue. Seven of the eight were confirmed by the nations, Argentina did not respond to The Athletic.
England England are the outlier. Their 10,900-mile route is the longest confirmed distance of any quarter-finalist and almost six times that of France. It has taken them from their Kansas City base to Dallas, Boston, New York/New Jersey, Atlanta, Mexico City and Miami, with returns to Kansas City between each match.England beat D.R. Congo 2-1 in Atlanta and Mexico 3-2 in Mexico City to reach the last eight, where they face Norway in Miami. The air miles will be handsomely cashed in should Thomas Tuchel’s team go all the way.June 17, Dallas — England 4 Croatia 2
