Megan Rapinoe's Total Shitshow Circus Rides Again in World Cup Epic Against England

From Lyon - And so England's 2019 World Cup campaign ends, not with a whimper but with a bang. Four days after the last 'game of the tournament' in Paris, the US delivered once again. 

Megan Rapinoe had called for a 'total shitshow circus' against France (and got it), before the wagons rolled into Lyon on Tuesday night. 

Rather than conducting the circus, as she did in the quarter-final against France, Rapinoe was a sideshow – albeit one which kicked the night off in dramatic fashion a good 90 minutes before the teams took up their positions on the pitch. 

Only a smattering of the 53,512-strong crowd were in position to see the American skipper come out onto the pitch alone before the warmups and walk to the centre of the field to applaud those present. 

A couple of minutes later, the news came in – Christen Press was starting on the left, Rapinoe was on the bench, every match preview was ruined and, frankly, nobody had the faintest idea what was happening. The fact that England had made the change to a 4-4-2 for the first time in the tournament was somewhere down the billing behind Rapinoe and the cage with the dancing bear.

The inquest began before the match had even begun. The change was a tactical decision, was the early word. Press was fitter, faster, could deal with England's dual-threat (which wasn't, it turned out, the England lineup) better down the right. Then Jill Ellis refused to explain the change, saying she'd wait until 'after the game', and the conspiracy theories started floating.

Tactical? Fitness? Was this a discipline issue? A set of warmups have rarely been watched so intently – and everyone was watching Rapinoe stand on the sidelines and gee her teammates up. Unfit, it seemed clear. The Ronaldo vs France in '98, for the women's game. It was, she explained with a grin after the match, a slight hamstring problem. 'Did I forget to tell you?' The queen of the ring, pulling the strings again. 

Then kickoff. Then an American goal. Same as it ever was. Kelley O'Hara put a ball across, Lucy Bronze failed to get tight to her attacker and Press – of course it was Press, it couldn't have been anybody else, the narrative demanded it – cannoned a header past Carly Telford in goal. 

You can run, you can hide. It doesn't matter. The narrative arrives. Relentless. Inevitable. 

Ellen White doesn't care much about narrative though, so she equalised inside ten minutes with a brilliant sliding finish, steered into the top right-hand corner. As if you could stop Americans – Americans, for crying out loud – from playing to narrative. 

Alex Morgan, on her 30th birthday, battered and bruised and goalless in the USA's four games since the 13-0 opener against Thailand, stole in to steer a header past Telford and restore the lead. Not even half time, the packed (and overwhelmingly American) crowd were on their feat for the greatest show on earth. 

After the interval, things took a bit of time to get going. Punters were getting back in their seats, and the performers had to warm to their tasks after the break. And a fresh player had to be introduced from the wings. 

What's a show without a villain, after all?

VAR has been the panto villain of the tournament. Time and again, the character in the drama that the fans love to hate. With all the timing of a seasoned pro, VAR made its entrance at the most dramatic moment possible. Jill Scott played through White. She slotted home. England celebrated, the players returned to their places, the referee put her hand to her ear...and waited. 

The silence stretched as fans, players, the referee herself all waited for word from the faraway room. 

You've all seen the script now, you've skipped ahead, you've seen the ending. The referee blew the whistle and gave the free kick to the de facto home side, White offside by all of a toenail. 

For the last 15 minutes, the circus became the theatre. VAR – the villain, the game-changer, the difference maker – a shot at redemption, when a break of oh, so many minutes saw a missed chance for White become a penalty; the back of her leg clipped by Becky Sauerbrunn. 

A chance for redemption, too, for Nikita Parris – misser of a penalty against Argentina, misser of a penalty against Norway. Except captain Steph Houghton stepped up instead, and took a spot kick worse than either of those that had come before. Redemption to damnation, in the blink of an eye (or, as the animated film Hercules put it in song, 'hero to zero, just like that!')

The inquests will come between now and Saturday's third-place playoff. Neville's tactical shift will be questioned, the mental impact of Rapinoe's shock absence will be agonised over, and the penalty...oh, the penalty. 

Tonight though, England are out of the World Cup. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less.