The US squad is certainly a likable one, they come across as quite humble, very focused and professional.
Green’s blunder, while it looks very embarrassing, is somewhat understandable, those balls bouncing low are vicious ones, Green is not the first world-class goalie to miss one like this. Dempsey’s shot was a good one, although I won’t swear that he intended it to go like that.

Green is not the first world-class goalie to miss one like this.

Green’s mistake was a basic schoolboy error. There wasn’t pace on the ball, and the shot was expected. There was nothing particularly difficult about it.

I guess the real problem for Green is that his reputation is built on his solidity, reliability, and effective technique. He’s not a David Seaman type of keeper, who will let in the occasional ridiculous goal, but keep the team out of jail because he’s instinctive.

England has a long and ignoble history of goalkeeping errors, but I think that Capello is now presented with a real dilemma. If he benches Green now, then he might as well send him home and tell him he’s never getting another England cap. But can Green get his legs back under him?

I was a little irked at some of the commentating, mainly the reference to the “British” support for England.  Let me assure you, the Scottish football supporters are certainly not supporting England!

I was a little irked at some of the commentating, mainly the reference to the “British” support for England.  Let me assure you, the Scottish football supporters are certainly not supporting England!

Yeah, the whole “Britain does not equal England” thing does seem a bit beyond commentators on both sides of the Atlantic.

I actually saw Kasey Keller, currently playing for the Seattle MLS team, allow a goal on Thursday almost exactly like the one that Green let in.  So, apparently not just for crappy goalkeepers.

As tiresome as it is when keepers complain about the ball, you’re going to see this kind of error a lot with this ball. 

In fact, I (as a supremely crappy goalkeeper in pickup games) have decided to never try to catch this type of ball with palms up.  If it’s coming low, you have to either smother it, catch it with palms out, or knock it away.  It just acts too weird along the ground to ever make a “routine” palms-up catch.

So, apparently not just for crappy goalkeepers.

The very first thing they teach you when you play in goals as a kid is to create a second barrier, which Rob Green failed to do. It’s not about him being a ‘crappy goalkeeper’, it’s about how ridiculous the mistake was for someone whose game lives and dies on technical competence. Fwiw, I would take Rob Green over Keller, even when Keller was performing heroically for BMG.

Let me assure you, the Scottish football supporters are certainly not supporting England!

Didn’t Ally McCoist say, while the score was 1-0, that “watching men in dark blue shirts trail England 1-0 is bringing back bad memories”?

Green certainly Calamity James-ed it. But I don’t think Capello should replace him now. It was a fluke, it happens. But now the tabloids are acting like he lost the points single-handedly. Where were the attacking players? Why was Rooney so isolated? What does J Cole have to do to get into the team? What’s up with Gerrard and Lampard? Why is Heskey there?! There’s plenty of blame to go around.

I was supporting England in this game, but as a neutral in general, I don’t see England winning or the US getting very far. It was a game high on passion but very low on skill in terms of passing, control, posession, or individual brilliance. To me, if you take away the implications of history and it you’re left with a fairly pedestrian game.

But now the tabloids are acting like he lost the points single-handedly.

There are no great over-reactors on earth than the English tabloid press.

Where were the attacking players? Why was Rooney so isolated? What does J Cole have to do to get into the team? What’s up with Gerrard and Lampard? Why is Heskey there?! There’s plenty of blame to go around.

You are totally right. I thought that Rooney had an okay game, and he certainly improved throughout its course, but that the team played pretty badly. I shouldn’t be, after this many years of watching them do this, but England’s ability to sit back when they’re in desperate need of goals completely infuriates me. I know that we’re far too dependent on Rooney, but it’s frustrating to not be able to parlay pressure into goals, and it’s been ever thus.

Green did Calamity James it, but he also deserved a little bit more support in the back than he got.

it’s frustrating to not be able to parlay pressure into goals, and it’s been ever thus.

This is one of the USA’s problems, quite often, and exactly why it confuses and infuriates me when sites like football365 claim England “dominated.” Watching England put on good but unproductive pressure, while ignoring that the other team is applying an equal or better amount, is exactly why many England fans have a much higher opinion of their team’s chances in any given tournament.

England fans have a much higher opinion of their team’s chances…

“than is warranted”...

...in any given tournament.

Watching England put on good but unproductive pressure, while ignoring that the other team is applying an equal or better amount, is exactly why many England fans have a much higher opinion of their team’s chances in any given tournament.

The truly objective fan is a mythical creature, and the history of cup football is littered with enough upsets to create hope even when that seems unwarranted to the outside observer.

The truly objective fan is a mythical creature

True true. I would say, though, that while this is also a problem in the States, I think a relatively good number of USMNT fans do manage to be objective…because we have to be. We’re faithful and positive, but we know what our likely chances are, we know we’d sound completely ridiculous if we said we were going to win the Cup, etc etc…in the same way that fans from smaller countries maintain some sense of objectivity just because doing otherwise would sort of mean you were cuckoo.

In the same way that fans from smaller countries maintain some sense of objectivity just because doing otherwise would sort of mean you were cuckoo.

I am absolutely not having a dig here at my northern brethren, but Scotland did truly think it was going to win the WC in its 1978 campaign. (Which was well before my time, but I’ve heard the stories.)

I think that the nation of England would actually be pretty surprised to win this year, but stranger things have happened, and hope hurts no one. (Although I appreciate how annoying it is for UK citizens in non-England locations who have the propaganda firehosed on them by a London-centric media.)

hope hurts no one

Word.

Elle, did you see the “Hand of Clod” headline? Tabloids are bad, I know, but I chuckled at that one. Of course, nothing beats the “US WINS IT 1-1!” from one of the New York’s finest.

I agree, Rooney did have a good game. He does get isolated up front, but that’s down to the midfield not supporting him. And it’s really strange that England almost seem to have a distrust of creative skill players like Joe Cole. I know he didn’t have a good year,  but I don’t think he’s finished. The current strategy seems to be “let’s punt it upfield and hope it falls on Crouch’s head! He’s really tall, you know!“OK, I’m just being bitter now, but still.

“Objective” is a particularly slippery concept in soccer.  The international squads play so few games that you really can’t know who the best team is going into the cup. 

“Hope hurts no one” is a good summary of the situation most fans are in.  Nothing about the individual US players suggests that they have a chance to make a deep run, but it doesn’t cost anything to believe for as long as possible that the US will catch lightning in a bottle and shock the world.  The best collection of individual players doesn’t always win.

Elle, did you see the “Hand of Clod” headline? Tabloids are bad, I know, but I chuckled at that one. Of course, nothing beats the “US WINS IT 1-1!” from one of the New York’s finest.

Yep, both the News of the World and the Mirror went with that headline. Great minds think alike!

My favourite US v Eng headline ever is “Yanks 2 Planks 0” from the dark days of the Graham Taylor era.

The international squads play so few games that you really can’t know who the best team is going into the cup.

I don’t know what the situation is in the US, but there’s no such thing in England as an international squad between matches. There are special ‘international’ days negotiated between the FA and the clubs, and if there’s no friendly scheduled then there might be training, but generally you get ‘called up’ for selection and then only train together for a few days before each tournament.

If an international is strategically pointless (a friendly, or qualifier that England don’t need to win/can’t win) then the clubs resist sending their players England-wards. The injury disputes got so awkward that either UEFA or FIFA said that players who were too injured to play for their country couldn’t then turn out for their club within a specified time period, and that countries could conduct their own medicals on supposedly injured players.

The current strategy seems to be “let’s punt it upfield and hope it falls on Crouch’s head! He’s really tall, you know!“OK, I’m just being bitter now, but still.

Yeah, the fact that punting it upfield has been a core part of our game for the last bajillion years is, I feel, a mistake.

(Although he *is* really, really tall.)

Didn’t Ally McCoist say, while the score was 1-0, that “watching men in dark blue shirts trail England 1-0 is bringing back bad memories”?

Super Ally!

Rangers greatest scorer of all time…

Great post and I’m glad to see Pandagoal rise like a phoenix after the winter layoff. I mostly lurk on big Pandagon but look forward to posting more here.

The one thing I would argue with is about the US not recovering when they get scored on early. Bradley seems to have really learned his lesson from the first Costa Rica, Brazil, and the Gold Cup disaster. The United States came from behind to get a result in the last qualifiers against Costa Rica, Honduras, and El Slavador. They did it again in the friendlies against Honduras and Turkey. Now we can add England in the World Cup to the list.

I think Bradley’s greatest strength as a coach is in the team’s mental preparation and he has really turned around what had been a fatal flaw.

I know he didn’t have a good year, but I don’t think he’s finished. The current strategy seems to be “let’s punt it upfield and hope it falls on Crouch’s head!

This has usually been the English strategy… “Route One.”

England has a long and ignoble history of goalkeeping errors

England used to have the best keepers…  But the days of Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton are no more….

But the days of Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton are no more….

Now it’s more like Gordon Bennett…as in “Gordon Bennett, what a howler!”

I am absolutely not having a dig here at my northern brethren, but Scotland did truly think it was going to win the WC in its 1978 campaign. (Which was well before my time, but I’ve heard the stories.)

Scotland has one of the saddest histories in the World Cup.  In 1978, maybe those aspirations were legitimate, when they were on form they just sliced and diced the Clockwork Orange.  (“I haven’t felt that good since Archie Gemmill scored against Holland!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8uchI1g3tM )

The problem for Scotland is that they have a tendency to truly gack a game in the tournament.

In 1974, Scotland went out on goal difference…  to Brazil.  Brazil knew how many goals they needed against Zaire, and got them.  Scotland opened with Zaire.

1978, Scotland drew with Iran…  and went out on goal difference to the Netherlands.

1982, Scotland went out on goal different… to the Soviet Union.  Two late goals given up to New Zealand were the killers.

1990’s loss to Costa Rica was the worst.

“The one thing I would argue with is about the US not recovering when they get scored on early. “

I also think the evidence for this (as with any general judgment you can make about an international team) is pretty shaky.

Teams that go down 1-0 very early in a match usually lose.  You can lose two or three of those in a row and it doesn’t suggest a pattern other than the overall pattern of “teams that go down 1-0 very early in a match usually lose.”

And yes, it’s also true in the US that the national team isn’t really much of an entity most of the time.  That’s why I say you really can’t easily judge a national squad - even if you count qualifying (where as you note the squad is often differently constituted), the number of test cases is very small.

Okay - I didn’t say they ALWAYS lose when they allow an early goal, or that they NEVER win. I said they “tend not to recover well” which I still stand by. Just because an early goal may not have led to a loss…may end in a win or draw…doesn’t necessarily mean they came back gunning like they did yesterday. The USMNT has won or drawn plenty of games where we felt lucky to escape with the result, where the final scoreline may belie the performance.

And I would add, the worry about giving up the early goal and maybe being shaky and unsure afterward is a hell of a lot more likely to punish the US when it’s against England as opposed to Trinidad & Tobago or El Salvador. So my specific concern was - we tend to get shaky and unreliable, and England would be a team that could rub that in.

“I haven’t felt that good since Archie Gemmill scored against Holland!”

That is an amazing goal, James. Have you ever been to Hampden and seen the lifesize recreation of it in diorama form in the Scottish Football Museum? It’s really something else.

I also think the evidence for this (as with any general judgment you can make about an international team) is pretty shaky.

I think that international teams do have cultures, and some of them are grittier than others. Although contingent on form, it seems true that countries that are less successful tend to have their confidence knocked more by an early goal against them. Just like club sides that are riding high in the championship race tend to be able to dig themselves back from pretty substantial scorelines against them.

USMNT often engages in the “punt it upfield strategy as well. Maybe it’s some kind of weird macho thing? As in “what is this passing and linking up play business? That’s for those tricksy, diving Johnny Foreigners and not to be trusted! Real men hoof that ball as far as they can!”

Have you ever been to Hampden and seen the lifesize recreation of it in diorama form in the Scottish Football Museum? It’s really something else.

Alas, I have not…  I’ve only made it back to Hampden Park once since they rebult it; back in 2003 for the Germany match.

A note to all the English who are not giving the US team any credit:

England have never beaten the United States in football in a match that mattered.

What was the line from Red Dwarf?

Something like “In the late 21st century Scotland fielded a genetically engineered goalkeeper who was 8 feet tall and 24 feet wide… and they still went out in the group stage.”