And so it finally began, after all the hype England played their first match of the World Cup, taking on the USA in Rustenberg. And was all the hype worth it? Well, as end results go, not really, but it was one of the better performances at the World Cup level in years although all the talk is going to surround one mistake in particular!
It couldn't have been a better start for England who lined up 4-4-2. After 4 minutes Captain Steven Gerrard latched onto a 'contoversially' selected Emile Hesky through ball to then prod the ball past Tim Howard in the USA goal to make it 1-0 to England. The perfect start for England and their skipper.
However, England as ever seemed to then take their foot of the pedal, with few clear cut chances in the the rest of the first half, in fact the best chance falling to Jozy Altidore of the US who didn't appear committed to winning a very winnable header in the English half. With 20 minutes gone James Milner who looked unfit was taken off to be replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips, whose performance only further underlined that leaving Adam Johnson at home was not the correct decision.
With 5 minutes to go before half-time was the moment that changed the game and possibly the course of England's tournament, as Clint Dempsey shot from about 30 yards, a twice bouncing shot skidded off the side of Robert Green's hand and fell into the net.
A horrific mistake that will be talked about for days to come!
My personal favourite jokes so far:
- Robert Green wishes the game was being played at Wembley, at least then he had a chance that the ground would swallow him up; and
- Like Environmentalists have always said, 'It's not easy being Green!'
A Howler, no more no less.
At half-time England changed King for Carragher, a very strange change as Upson must have done something wrong, having partnered John Terry throughout the very successful qualifying period. And Carraghers lack of pace was showed up by Altidore, who probably should have scored again, albeit Green made a good save to atone a bit for his earlier mistake.
The rest of the game saw England pressurise for the majority of the time, with Wright-Phillips and Hesky in particular guilty of fluffing their lines!
In all, England played well, and would have won except for Green and his mistake. I'd stay 4-4-2 the next game, swap Joe Cole on the left, play Upson at Centre half and Hart in goal. Of course Capello knows about £5million a year more than me though!
