The England-America Football Rivarly
The Group C opener between England and the USA had some anticipation about it, not only because of the cultural and historical ties between the two nations but also because the world was waiting to see how well the English Premier League superstars in the English camp had prepared for this tournament. Well, it has to be said that by the end of the game, question marks have rather increased.
England coach Fabio Capello had kept a secret of the starting XI for this match and audiences had to wait until the team sheet came out to see what plans he had made to cope up with a few issues in his team setup. One of the problems was to find a suitable partner for John Terry after Rio Ferdinand was ruled of the tournament. The coach decided to go with the experience of Ledley King. He has played only half of the league fixtures for his club Tottenham Hotspurs this season and has been prone to injuries throughout. King looked ok till half time, fitness wise, but was deemed not fit to play the remainder of the match. He got replaced by Jamie Carragher for the second half who himself had a few problems facing Jozy Altidore.
The major problem England has been facing for last six years now is the midfield setup when both Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard are playing. The easy way out has been to play Gerrard in more deeper and Lampard just behind the strikers but this leaves Gerrard underutilised and the defensive line vulnerable because of the missing holding midfielder like Gareth Barry. The stand-in skipper for the tournament led the team by example, literally, and made some fabulous runs down the opposite penalty area, first of them ending in the deadlock breaker.
When Gerrard is employed in more central but deeper role and Lampard in attacking position, the team needs to have two wingmen, which they are really short of, quality wise. Since end of the last World Cup when David Beckham is not being played regularly, none of Aaron Lennon, Shaun Wright-Phillips or Theo Walcott has been able to cement their position in the squad. Capello decided to place Lennon on right and James Milner on left from start of this match. The latter has missed a few training sessions lately due to illnes and was replaced by Wright-Phillips at only the half hour mark. Putting Wright-Phillips on to play on left side of the midfield was really surprising and only Capello can explain the tactics behind this move, especially when Joe Cole is sitting on the bench. Lennon was involved in most of the attacking moves by England but his final balls to the penalty area were really disappointing. Glenn Johnson had a very good game going forward and was unlucky not to score just behore the half time.
The highlight of the match was the fumble made by English goalkeeper Robert Green off a flirty shot from Clint Dampsey. England has three above-average keepers in their squad and no one was clearly favourite to start this match ahead of others. Green got the nod but the embarrasment of letting a goal in through arms may cause some changes between the sticks in future matches. The only thing he could blame for this costly mistake was the heavily criticized match ball Jabulani.
Attacking partnership of Wayne Rooney and Emile Heskey did all they could to get past the overly cowded American penalty box. Oguchi Onyewu had a very solid performance in defense of the US alongside Jay DeMerit and remained a threat on the opposite goal from set-pieces. Landon Donovan was in heart of almost all the attacks from the U.S., supported very well by playmaker Michael Bradley and got out a good performance from both Dempsey and Altidore.
Although both teams would be fairly satisfied to have avoided defeat in the openeing match which could have gone either side but England need to improve in a number of areas if they have any intentions to get in the rumble of winning the title this time.
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