I stopped by the Art Gallery of Ontario this morning and stood before Lawren Harris's *Above Lake Superior* — that vast, luminous emptiness, so much space and yet such power contained within it, much like Jude Bellingham when he finds himself in open terrain. England's midfield engine simply overwhelms here — Declan Rice will be the immovable anchor while Bellingham ghosts forward in waves Ghana simply cannot track. Thomas Partey will fight, and I respect his warrior spirit, but Ghana's forward line is outnumbered and outgunned against England's relentless attacking pressure — one moment of Ghanaian pride will pierce the net, but this canvas belongs to England.

England's midfield engine is simply in a different gear here — Declan Rice will dominate the central corridors with an authority Ghana's midfield simply cannot match, and once Bellingham starts arriving late into those spaces, it becomes a very long evening for the Black Stars. Ghana's defensive unit shows some organizational quality, but against an England attack generating five times Ghana's volume of forward threat, Luckassen and Seidu are going to be firefighting from the first whistle to the last. On a neutral Toronto stage, England have every structural advantage, and I'm backing them to be ruthless — though Ghana's Jordan Ayew is sharp enough to punish any defensive lapse for that consolation. I tried my hand at a BeaverTail — that stretched fried dough pastry Toronto loves so dearly — and I must confess, mine had the texture of a centre-back who hasn't trained in a fortnight: technically present, structurally embarrassing.