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World Cup 2010 Comment: England fulfil dodgy keeper stereotype in USA failure - Robert Green is not No.1
Harsh reality of highest level hits home in disappointing draw
12 Jun 2010 22:21:00
By Sulmaan Ahmad | Chief editor
As sure as a Spanish pass is crisp and a German penalty is unstoppable, an English goalkeeper has gone from the world class of Banks, Shilton, Clemence and Seaman to being the butter-fingered laughing stock of international football.
On the part of all the detractors, it is without doubt an exaggeration, but one that has been given all the credence in the world after Rob Green conspired to spill a straight and relatively slow Clint Dempsey shot into his own net.
Reactions in and around the stadium in Rustenburg were a mixture of uncontrollable laughter and absolute shock. Shock in the sense that everybody expected it, but not that it would be quite this bad.
It's up there as perhaps the worst ever goalkeeper blunder in England's tournament history. There is certainly no need to exaggerate the incident, but there is no hiding from the truth. Not when Capello is in charge.
The keeper debate has been the most prominent in the entire build-up to the World Cup and Green seemed the happy-medium for Fabio Capello, who had a touch of the Goldilocks about him in not wanting to go with the too old David James or too young Joe Hart. Without doubt, form favours Hart and experience - particularly ability to recover from setbacks - favours James. Perhaps the veteran being given the No.1 should have been followed through with on the pitch, after all.
Chief among Capello's problems now is what to do with Green. The West Ham man made a good recovery during the game and could quite conceivably have a good tournament from here on. But when removing all traces of sympathy from the decision-making process, logic would certainly dictate that there is much less risk for the team in making a change for Algeria on Friday, even if that comes at the unfortunate and even unfair expense of the shattered confidence of a squad member.
Capello's gambles on injury-risks James Milner (virus) and Ledley King (though his groin injury is new, and not an aggravation of his chronic knee problems) backfired as early as the first half. With Rio Ferdinand having already been ruled out, the coach needs a few more rocks upon whom he can rely to lead the team into the knockout rounds.
Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard alongside each other in midfield are barely even a talking point, which can only be a good thing. It may not be the best pairing to truly dominate a game, but the dynamism made England fast-moving from back to front for 90 minutes. Captaincy really galvanises Gerrard, who was perhaps England's best player of the night.
Emile Heskey may have missed a good chance but he also was at the centre of most of England's best attacking play. Capello has no illusions about what he has at his disposal and is playing to the strengths of the team. Not even Messi, Tevez, Higuain and Di Maria exactly lit up proceedings earlier in the day against Nigeria. Hopefully the Heskey debate is a dead one for now.
As sure as a Spanish pass is crisp and a German penalty is unstoppable, an English goalkeeper has gone from the world class of Banks, Shilton, Clemence and Seaman to being the butter-fingered laughing stock of international football.
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On the part of all the detractors, it is without doubt an exaggeration, but one that has been given all the credence in the world after Rob Green conspired to spill a straight and relatively slow Clint Dempsey shot into his own net.
Reactions in and around the stadium in Rustenburg were a mixture of uncontrollable laughter and absolute shock. Shock in the sense that everybody expected it, but not that it would be quite this bad.
It's up there as perhaps the worst ever goalkeeper blunder in England's tournament history. There is certainly no need to exaggerate the incident, but there is no hiding from the truth. Not when Capello is in charge.
The keeper debate has been the most prominent in the entire build-up to the World Cup and Green seemed the happy-medium for Fabio Capello, who had a touch of the Goldilocks about him in not wanting to go with the too old David James or too young Joe Hart. Without doubt, form favours Hart and experience - particularly ability to recover from setbacks - favours James. Perhaps the veteran being given the No.1 should have been followed through with on the pitch, after all.
Chief among Capello's problems now is what to do with Green. The West Ham man made a good recovery during the game and could quite conceivably have a good tournament from here on. But when removing all traces of sympathy from the decision-making process, logic would certainly dictate that there is much less risk for the team in making a change for Algeria on Friday, even if that comes at the unfortunate and even unfair expense of the shattered confidence of a squad member.
Don't forget...
Capello's gambles on injury-risks James Milner (virus) and Ledley King (though his groin injury is new, and not an aggravation of his chronic knee problems) backfired as early as the first half. With Rio Ferdinand having already been ruled out, the coach needs a few more rocks upon whom he can rely to lead the team into the knockout rounds.
Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard alongside each other in midfield are barely even a talking point, which can only be a good thing. It may not be the best pairing to truly dominate a game, but the dynamism made England fast-moving from back to front for 90 minutes. Captaincy really galvanises Gerrard, who was perhaps England's best player of the night.
Emile Heskey may have missed a good chance but he also was at the centre of most of England's best attacking play. Capello has no illusions about what he has at his disposal and is playing to the strengths of the team. Not even Messi, Tevez, Higuain and Di Maria exactly lit up proceedings earlier in the day against Nigeria. Hopefully the Heskey debate is a dead one for now.
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England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 2-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.
Hosted by Joe Doyle
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19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
19:32 BST
We're getting plenty of people saying it was boring. PLENTY. But Spain scored seven goals in eight games at the World Cup and I didn't hear too many of their fans complaining. Or as Fran Stinchcombe points out on Twitter: "If we had lost but played free flowing attacking football would these people still have moaned?"
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