This story is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak’s newsletter here.On Monday morning, I heard from a well-known American basketball coach who is following the World Cup. He had just read a story about England’s victory over Norway in the quarterfinals, and he was struck by something that Jude Bellingham, one of England’s top stars, had said after the match.“We’ve tried to create a positive environment, and we should continue that into the final four,” Bellingham told reporters. “I can’t speak highly enough of the lads. You’re not going to win every game popping the ball and making a thousand passes. Sometimes, you have to win dirty.”If you’ve been following England, you know that the context of the quote was even more interesting than the content. The line had come in response to England manager Thomas Tuchel, who had criticized his team’s performance in a post-match interview on the field with Gabriel Clarke.“The commitment is there,” Tuchel said. “But we made life very, very difficult for us in the way we played, how we played, sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today.”Clarke then asked Tuchel if the mistakes were due to the team’s mentality, which seemed to set Tuchel off.Tuchel: “Mentality? This is pure mentality. How can you ask about mentality now? This is pure mentality. It’s not about mentality.”