David Sneyd reports from Atlanta

MOST OF THEM had their hoods up.

They didn’t want to show their face.

Marcus Rashford, John Stones, Reece James, Anthony Gordon, Nico O’Reilly and Jordan Pickford sought cover. Faces like thunder.

The England goalkeeper could have thrown his top at Enzo Fernandez’s strike and still not stopped it from going in.

The beauty of the fallout in a social media age is we’ve already seen the clips of Jude Bellingham’s reaction to seeing the ball hit the net for the equaliser after sliding in to block the shot. You don’t need to be a professional lip reader to realise what was said. “It’s the middle of the goal.”

Another clip doing the rounds was of Messi’s confused reaction to a confrontation with Bellingham, something the latter brushed aside. “We were discussing a foul actually. It was nothing bad. It was nothing big. I thought there was a foul earlier and he said ‘what about the one on me?’ I was kind of saying ‘you’re strong enough to take it’. It was a privilege to play against him. I’m on the losing side which hurts a lot.”

One English broadsheet newspaper reacted to the defeat with a story detailing “all 31 dirty tricks Argentina unleashed” and “how the South American masters of the dark arts lived up to their reputation.”

Here are a few more numbers, supplied by Opta. Between Anthony Gordon’s opening goal in the 55th minute and Lautaro Martinez’s winner in the 92nd, Argentina averaged 88% possession.

Lionel Messi, aged 39, equalled his record of most amount of dribbles with nine. He had two assists.

Thomas Tuchel, in his infinite wisdom, decided that with a goal lead the best tactic was to then allow Argentina get the ball to Messi as much as possible and sit off him once he had it. How do you even come to such a bizarre conclusion?

It won’t be getting added to any coaching manuals.

Declan Rice emerged from the England dressing room with his dangly white ear phones for comfort and to ignore outside noise. We doubt he was listening to The Wolfe Tones. He’s moved on, those days are gone, but still he is stuck as part of a cycle of English anxiety and desperation.

Dan Burn spoke on a podium about the hurt and the pride he felt representing his country. Messi walked by just after and talked about preparing for a World Cup final.

The England players started to filter out at 6.57pm local time in Atlanta. The final whistle blew at 5.02pm.

Those two hours would have felt so painful after the abject collapse during the final half an hour of a semi-final in which they had taken control.

Instead, England wilted, Argentina powered through. They were inspired by Messi, a 39-year-old who got stronger and more confident as the minutes ticked away. As those around him laboured and gasped for breath, Messi found purified air.

Encouraged by the decisions of Tuchel, Argentina became emboldened. But the English boss refused to accept he made mistakes with his defensive substitutions and decision to go to a back five.

“No, I believe that’s just the nature of the game,” he said.

“As soon as you lose, you get criticised. That’s just what it is and get criticised after. No one knows what would have happened if we made different decisions. So, it makes no sense to engage in that and lose my head. I’m responsible for them, I took them, so I take the criticism. That’s just the way it is.

“I don’t believe in an English thing or a curse or history repeating itself. It’s different players, different coaches. I believe in the football thing. That cost us. We were just not active enough in our structure.

“Active meaning we didn’t fight any duels. We couldn’t get close to play on the ball. We struggled to defend the crosses. We didn’t stop runners into the box. We were not physical enough in the second line. You can get ball possession in any formation. We couldn’t get any ball possession to turn the pressure around. I’m sad and upset for my players because we were close.”

And yet, when it mattered, they were nowhere near the level of what was required.

The conversation turned to Tuchel’s future and whether he could stay on after the manner of this collapse.

“First of all, the World Cup is not over,” he said, referencing the third-placed playoff with France in Miami on Saturday. “There is still a match to play, that we are not looking forward to so much to but there is still a match to play.

“Of course then we keep on going. I have a contract until the home Euros and I’m looking forward to that even like now it is difficult to look that far ahead.”

Bellingham said it would be “an internal matter” to dissect the defeat, insisting England players could “take a lot from the experience” of the World Cup but also acknowledging that he was “telling the fans the same thing they’ve been hearing for years” and that his “head was fuzzy with disappointment.”

When Gordon scored his fine back-post goal it felt like England had perfect clarity. Argentina were struggling. Tuchel’s retreat handed them the initiative and Lionel Scaloni’s changes also helped turn the tide in their favour.

Rodrigo De Paul had been dropped but was then thrown into the mix. Along with Messi, they began to find space and probe with neat passes and numerous crosses into the box. England went deeper and deeper until they became submerged.

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Messi’s brilliance was a sight to behold. His intelligence and instinct summed up with how he set up Martinez’s winner. O’Reilly and a flailing Djed Spence doubled up on him to try and stop the cross. They couldn’t get close.

There were seven England players almost in a line from the edge of the box as Messi crossed. None of them were in the right place.

England were beaten and then came the Argentina celebrations. Bellingham took issue with some of them, involved in a brief scuffle before a flag from the crowd appeared on the pitch and was held by some players. “Las Malvinas son Argentinas,” which translates to “The Malvinas are Argentine.”

It was a reminder of the historical context of this contest, with a new chapter of chaos and drama written by the victors. The question now is whether Fifa take action over the political nature of the banner.

“They were raised in an environment where they feared nothing,” Scaloni said. “They don’t feel the weight on their shoulders.They’re not thinking about if they miss. They’re not thinking about the semi final or final. They’re thinking about football. You give everything you could. If things don’t go your way you can feel you did all you could do. I am proud of this.”