England V USA (Match Report)

England 1 v USA 1.
The infernal Buzzookas drowned out both the English fans and the USA fans, although they abated for the respective national anthems.
Do the locals get paid by the blow? for making such a continuous racket?
Who knows but they must surely have sore lips at the end of each match .

Despite the trumpets from hell ,England started strongly and were in front within five minutes thanks to Stevie Gerrard , who expertly tucked away the ball to the right of the American No1 from fifteen yards after good interplay with Heskey.

The following thirty five minutes or so saw England and the US spar in midfield, and really it was a tale of two good defences nullifying talented forwards on each side.

Then Robert Dempsey reverse jinked Gerrard well outside the penalty box, he twisted expertly several times and let off a tame grass chopper ... that must have been travelling all of 5km /hr by the time the England keeper Robert Green attempted.... to pick the rolling ball up into his hands,he got down one one knee but his body wasnt behind the ball, and lo and behold the ball rolled over his hands and up and over his knee and into the net , despite his hapless backward dive.

Howler Howler Howler come on up and see Howard Green try and catch a jumping bean.
Honestly this was a goalies nightmare in hell.
He will never ever forget this blunder of blunders.
But this doesnt take anything away from Dempseys effort, and Altidore later could have put the Americans 2 ,1 up , if it wasnt for Greens hand that deflected his shot albeit unconvincingly and luckilly for England onto Greens near post.

At half time Milner and KIng were subbed , and were replaced by Shaun Wright Phillips and Jamie Carragher.
The second half was similar to the first , but the USA pressed England much more for periods.
The last fifteen minutes saw England up the pace and pressure the USA defence continuosly... England put in a lot of crosses ,but the US defence was brilliant.

A draw was on balance a fair result.
The USA are a very good team, they are physical and skilful with plenty of pace,in these aspects they are very similar to England , and both sides have tons of heart.
Rooney was absent for large swathes of this match he looked amiss.
There were stories of several England players having some sort of flu or virus, but whatever the reasons for Rooneys lack lustre display, he will bounce back.

Finally.... the USA have earned even more respect in the Football world, They can go a long way in South Africa.
On England they need to Gel more as a team for ninety minutes not just the first few minutes.
A great game in many respects, not a classic , but the physicality and skill on display was immmense.

Man Of The Match...Aaron Lennon, he set up two should have been goal scoring oportunitys and beat his man several times , he also tracked back continuosly.

[edit on 13-6-2010 by Dr Expired]

[edit on 13-6-2010 by Dr Expired]

[edit on 13-6-2010 by Dr Expired]

usual England performance, few nice moves, but after that we run out of ideas and switch to the old Wimbledon style long ball game. Hoping to hit long balls to the big man up top.Players seem scared of the ball, Rooney decides he will play midfield rather than up front and goal keeper makes blunder

Robert Green made a basic goal keeping error. I was a keeper at quite a high standard in my younger days and was told (by Ray Clemence), you always get your body beind the ball, so that if the ball slips through your hands your body would be there to block the ball. I believe i would have saved that shot.

Glenn Johnson was the best English player. we need to play Rooney up on his own as he does for United with Gerrard playing just behind as he plays best for Liverpool. we need to build the team around these two players, if we are to make any impact on this tournament.