Opinion: Why Harry Kane's England is better than Rooney & Beckham's Three Lions

England national football team is arguably one of the best European teams in the World Cup history. The team has competed at the FIFA World Cup since 1950 and their best ever performance was winning the Cup in 1966 held at home, other than that, reaching fourth place in Italy in 1990 under late coach Bobby Robson. 

In 1966, England used their home ground advantage to the hilt to emerge champions.

But what happened next? Even in the presence of legendary players like Wayne Rooney and David Beckham, England never tasted World Cup glory.

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Rooney and Beckham era:

Wayne Rooney made his senior international debut for England in February 2003, aged 17, and since then featured in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cups. He was widely regarded as his country's "best player".

Rooney scored 53 goals in 119 internationals and is England's "all-time record goalscorer" and second most-capped player, behind goalkeeper Peter Shilton.

Same goes for free-kick specialist David Beckham as he made 115 career appearances, appearing at three FIFA World Cup tournaments - 1998, 2002 and 2006.

Key to Victory:

England's secret weapon has been replicating their style of play from the English Premiership. Southgate has allowed the team to play free-flowing soccer, with young Turks chasing down the ball and attacking from dead ball situations, namely headers - 6 in all - making England highest goal scorer with headers.

England also has the third youngest team in the World Cup at Russia after France and Nigeria, young legs have no doubt helped Southgate to finetune his strategy. 

No longer has England depended on "experience" relying on "old warhorses". The philosophy of chasing down the ball like a regular Premier league game has stood the team in good stead, along with a tight defence and an able keeper in Pickford, England has "attacked" at every opportunity haven't sat back, like other England team's in the past.

Harry Kane era:

It is now believed that Harry Kane will do what the other "legends" failed as under head coach ex-England player Gareth Southgate, who played with Beckham, the team is looking better than before and also other lesser known players Jesse Lingard, Raheem Sterling, Dele Alli have been contributing.

England's current line-up: Jordan Pickford (goalkeeper), Kyle Walker, John Stones, Harry Maguire, Kieran Trippier, Ashley Young, Jesse Lingard, Jordan Henderson, Dele Alli, Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling.

With this line-up, the England team has the best chance to win the World Cup since Bobby Moore's legendary 1966 team. Harry Kane and Co have displayed an impeccable performance in the FIFA World Cup 2018. They started their campaign defeating Tunisia 2-1 and haven't looked back since stepping up their game in every match. 

They continued the momentum and rolled into the Round of 16 after trouncing Panama 7-1. However, they received a set back when they narrowly lost 1-0 to Belgium. 

Although, they pulled their socks up and entered the Round of 16 with renewed energy which was needed in an intriguing match against Colombia.

In the match, the score remained at 1-0, until stoppage time, when suddenly a header from Yerry Mina led the game to extra time. Neither team managed to score in extra time, and the match went into penalties, which England won 4-3, thanks to the superlative Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

After the victory, fans had huge expectations from the new and fresh English team which surpassed expectations by entering the semi-final beating Sweden easily with a comfortable 2-0 margin.

Harry Kane is currently the top scorer of the FIFA World Cup 2018 and he might win the Golden Boot too, but more importantly, he could overshadow Bobby Moore's England team if they go ahead and win the Cup final on July 15.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)