What if Fabio Capello had chosen Manchester City’s Joe Hart as England’s goalie for the world cup
Lying deep in the ruins of the England’s world cup catastrophe is a dilemma that refuses to die down, amid their dismal showing in the world cup, and that is the England’s Goal Keeping Conundrum.
As the country searches for answers that will define the future of English football, the frenzied search of answers shows no signs of abating.
There have been so many what ifs following the dismal campaign in South Africa but none more important that the one of depriving Joe Hart his maiden cap at the World Cup.
Think about this: What if Capello had chosen Manchester City/Birmingham’s Joe Hart as England’s number one goalie for the tournament? What if Joe, the country’s leading and in form custodian, had been guarding the net in the game against United States, when Green gifted the Yanks a cheap equalizer and England failed to recover from the set back.
Lack of experience was given as the reason by the England manager, as he opted for the error-prone Green for the first game and even his second choice was the 39 year old James.
Nevertheless, when Germany takes on Argentina in the quarter final of this years world cup, two goal keepers taking the field will have a combined age of 47 years and will have 19 caps between them, 8 of which have been earned at this world cup only.
Hart can surely be forgiven for casting an envious glance in the direction of Germany’s Manuel Neuer and Argentina’s Sergio Romero. As the young English man ponder on what to do with his holidays, his German and Argentinean counterparts will be playing the biggest match of their careers.
At the end of last season, neither Neuer of Romero was their country’s first choice goal keepers. When Maradona took over the Albieceleste, his team did not have a permanent goalie. In fact, throughout the 18 month qualifying campaign he tried 4 shot stoppers in between the posts.
Mariano Andujar, Juan Pablo Carrizo and Abbondanzieri were all tried and tested before the responsibilities were handed over to Romero for the last 3 games. Although it was a controversial choice but since when is Maradona afraid of controversies? Maradona chose a keeper unknown in his homeland but he has been rewarded for his faith as Romero has only conceded 2 goals so far in the tournament.
Germany’s situation was however more tragic than desperate, In November 09 Rob Enke committed suicide and Rene Alder suffered a rib injury that ruled him out of the World Cup. Neuer suddenly became the fist choice keeper, and he too like Romero has not disappointed at all conceding the same number of goals as his Argie counterpart, 2.
By not throwing Joe Hart, a man who will certainly be the future of England – into the fray, Capello not only missed out on an opportunity to select the most in form side but he also cost a young and aspiring keeper chance to gain invaluable experience in the biggest tournament of all.
The experience doest not come from sitting on the bench, it’s all about being in the middle of things and when Romero and Neuer were having their say on the vuvuzelas and conning the referees, Hart was suffering in silence.
Despite being the best keeper of the three in Capello’s squad, not only did Hart miss out on the heat of the intense battle, he also missed out on the opportunity to deal with the tricky questions of the most renowned journalists, from across the world in the post match conferences.
Neither Neuer nor Romero can claim to be the best goal keeper in the world but the lessons they are learning from playing at the highest level possible will go a long way in making them a better keeper for the rest of their careers, the experience they are having is just invaluable.
Joe Hart will most certainly be the man between the posts when England play hungry in their first match of the Euro 2012 qualifiers but by then the golden chance to enhance his education in football would have been permanently lost, and that too by no fault of his own.
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