Fans of the Three Lions were in familiar territory last night as England and the USA played out a 1-1 draw in the Royal Bafokeng Stadium. A midfield struggling to string passes together and goalkeeping howlers have been features of the English national team for years. From the moment Fabio Capello announced his team selection many knew it was going to be one of those nights. The Gerrard-Lampard debate has been done to death in the stands, the pubs and on the radio talkshows by English football fans. The overwhelming conclusion is that playing England’s two most accomplished attacking midfielders together in deeper central midfield positions does not work. Despite this, the most expensive coach at the World Cup decided to prove his worth by, in the eyes of many fans, making the same mistake as his predecessors.
The game started very well for England. A pass inside intended for Rooney wasn’t controlled by the Manchester United talisman, and the ball ran through to Emile Heskey. He spotted the run of Gerrard and flicked it around the corner. The England captain burst through the USA defence before coolly slotting the ball home. 1-0 to England. The game continued at a high tempo, and was physically competitive, Capello favourite James Milner somehow escaping a yellow card for his late, high challenge. Milner was booked not long after for another rash attempt at a tackle, and this saw him suffer the ignominy of being a first half substitute, replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips. The USA midfield were far more comfortable on the ball, and their movement pushed England back into their own half of the pitch. They were unlucky not to equalise when Landon Donovan’s lovely cross skimmed past the head of Jozy Altidore. The striker had an impressive season for Hull but probably should have done better.
Five minutes before half time the Americans took the lead thanks in large part to a truly terrible mistake by West Ham and England goalkeeper Robert Green. Clint Dempsey held the ball up well and turned away from the England defenders to create space for himself, but was still 25 yards from goal when he shot. The ball was slow and relatively low and should have been a routine save but somehow Green misjudged it and the ball ricocheted off his right hand and into the goal. "It hit the outside of one of my thumbs, do that again 1000 times and I will save 999," he said after the game. After Paul Robinson, Scott Carson and Ben Foster, Green added his name to the legend of English goalkeeping blunders. Rather unsympathetically, Adrian Chiles commented at half-time that he “hoped that was the worst moment of Green’s career.” The goal was nothing less than the USA deserved, they had dominated possession and had England chasing shadows for much of the first half.
Capello had further problems during the break, as Ledley King was substituted for Jamie Carragher, the Tottenham man having put in a very good first half performance. Only minutes after the restart, another Tottenham man, Aaron Lennon, created England’s best chance since the goal. He burst down the right in typical fashion but his cross went behind the England strikers. Despite Gerrard and Lampard being renowned for their goalscoring, neither were anywhere near capitalising on Lennon’s good work. Less than five minutes later Lennon rolled a good pass through for Heskey, but the striker bottled his chance by shooting straight at Tim Howard. The USA fought back, again dominating possession and territory and both Carragher and Gerrard went into the referee’s book for bad fouls. Altidore produced their best moment of the second half when he rolled Carragher and charged towards goal. Carragher couldn’t make a challenge without risking a red card and so had to let Altidore go. He bore down on goal and struck a powerful shot inside Green’s near post, but the keeper somewhat made up for his earlier mistake by producing a solid save that turned the ball onto the post.
England produced a couple of other chances of note in the second half. Gerrard whipped in a cross just a little too high for Rooney, and then Rooney teed up Wright-Phillips who shot straight at Howard in the American goal. The Americans also pressed for a winner late on, but the game finished 1-1 and it was probably a fair result. It was a ragged second half from England, with both Gerrard and Lampard misplacing straightforward passes, and the Americans showing their superior ability on the ball. As the two sides considered most likely to progress from group C the score line will probably be seen by both camps as a decent result for the opening game, but England in particular have a lot to do if they are to make an impression on this tournament. |
