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Player Ratings First:

Green – 4.5 – Had two big saves to make, one of which he dropped in his own goal and the other of which he got very lucky with.

Johnson – 5.5 – Untroubled defensively, but he was massively frustrating on the ball. Every time it came to him in the England half he was so slow to move it on that it inevitably went sideways and any attacking impetus was lost.

King – 5.5 – Never really looked all that assured and he never really inspired confidence.

Terry – 6 – Steady performance.

Cole – 5.5 – No troubles in defence, like Johnson, but his distribution was shockingly poor.

Lennon – 6 – When he got the ball, he was our only direct attacking threat. Not perfect by any means, but plenty to build on and a much better option than anything else we’ve got.

Gerrard – 7 – I think that this must have been Gerrard’s first good game for England since he played against Germany at Euro 2000. He did a decent job of getting from box to box, making himself an effective part of our ‘back eight’ and doing a good job when he had the ball.

Lampard – 5 – Completely anonymous, he never got into the game.

Milner – 5 – I can only think that the pressure of the occasion got to him, because his cameo was bizarre.

Heskey – 8 Man of the Match – The missed chance was the only blot on his performance. He held the ball up well, won it in the air and was the fulcrum of our team. Once he went off, the game was dead.

Rooney – 5 – Did not turn up.

Substitutes:

Wright-Phillips – 4 – An absolute liability and no better than Walcott. Every time he touched the ball it went straight back to the USA.

Carragher – 5 – none of our centre-backs are especially quick, but Carragher looked slow and out of touch.

Crouch – 6 – Little time to make any impact, but when he came on our attacking threat effectively ended.

I’m yet to look at the Sunday newspapers, but I imagine that there’s some degree of panic mongering and that Rob Green has become something of a scapegoat. I can imagine all sorts of puns involving ‘Soylent Green’ of ‘Putting Green’. There’s no point rounding on the England team after this performance, though. That’s the sort of behaviour reserved for fickle gloryhunters. This performance was by no means up to scratch, but there was plenty of potential and with some minor tweaking, as opposed to a complete overhaul, England should qualify from the group with ease. There were a number of positives.

The first was how effective England was when the USA had the ball and tried to launch an attack. Capello has a reputation as a pragmatist who can build a strong defensive unit and it showed last night. I never had any confidence in our centre-backs, but whenever the USA had the ball, England dropped back and formed a virtually impenetrable back eight. As soon as the USA had the ball in the England half, they had two options: they could either play it back to their defenders who would panic and give it away or they could take a shot from thirty yards. It’s something that’s gone largely un-noticed in the aftermath of the game and I suspect that Capello will be very pleased with the defensive side of his team.

Gerrard’s performance was another big bonus. Normally for England the manager persists with him because he’s such an effective, talismanic figure for Liverpool, but he completely fails to deliver. It’s always been hard to say why; it could be a lack of motivation, being partnered alongside an unsuitable player or just struggling in an unfamiliar position. He seemed really fired up last night and I suspect it had something to do with him having been handed the captain’s armband and having become the team’s leader on the world stage. Hopefully, he may be thinking that he can be the same talismanic captain for England that he is for Liverpool. He tracked back well, his tackling was good, he won it in the air and there were no problems with his distribution. He had a quieter second half, but there can be no real complaints with his performance.

After Heskey’s man of the match display last night, I think that we have the right system, but we need to tweak the personnel a little. I can appreciate the argument for playing 4-5-1 with Gerrard behind Rooney, but it is not one that I can advocate. When we played it long, Heskey generally won it, held up the ball and brought other players into the game. That was when we created chances. When we tried to play possession football, the same thing happened over and over again. We’d start from the back, play it across the back four and run out of ideas. Johnson would get the ball in a position where he could press forward and work with Lennon to get the ball in the box, but he was too indecisive. He ended up trapping the ball, getting surrounded and playing it sideways. Cole tried to press forward with the ball, but his distribution was uncharacteristically poor. If we are to play possession football, it must be with an emphasis on keeping the ball in the opposition half so that they are under permanent pressure. There’s an awful lot to be said for Stoke’s approach of getting the ball into the box at every opportunity. What England was playing was not effective possession football, it was tippy-tappy. Worse still, it was tippy-tappy that always had the same end result, the long ball up to Heskey. They may as well have saved five minutes and just played it long in the first place. This is why I fear the 4-5-1 system. Neither of our central midfielders was coming deep to receive the ball off the defenders. They were both jostling for the starring role and were hoping that somebody would come in and do such menial work in the way that they have become accustomed to when playing for their clubs. The defence were completely isolated and ultimately we ended up with only one way of getting the ball forwards. The difference with playing Gerrard behind Rooney is that we’re left with nobody to win these long balls and we’ll just end up giving it away every single time.

This must be the first little tweak to the current 4-4-1-1 system. One of Lampard and Gerrard must be dropped or moved asides because the two simply do not work in the middle together. Neither of them will come deep, receive the ball and start an attack. They want to finish the attack and take the plaudits for their part in a vital goal. Last night we were crying out for a player like Gareth Barry to just sit back and take the ball and move it on. This role has recently been mastered by Paul Scholes at Manchester United, who sits on the halfway line, demands the ball off his defenders and then players a pin-point 30 yard pass to a team-mate. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be convinced to come out of retirement and so the only viable alternative is Barry. I think the way forward is to play Joe Cole on the left, put Gerrard and Barry in the middle and drop Lampard. Somebody has to miss out for the good of the team. We’ve then at least got two ways of getting the ball forwards and hopefully that would allow us to bring the likes of Lennon into the game more. For now, though, I can see no sense whatsoever in getting rid of the only get out ball that we had tonight and the only player to play really well. The fact that he was our only get out option when we had the likes of Gerrard, Johnson, Cole and Lennon on the pitch is something that seriously needs addressing.

The other change that needs to be made is in goal. I am not going to go over the top in criticism of Rob Green. He made a horrible, horrible mistake on the big stage and his confidence will now be shot to pieces. I don’t know if he’ll be able to pick himself up in the next few days, but I get the impression that there could be a disaster on our hands if we pick him again. Unfortunately, there is also a pretty persuasive argument for not swapping goalkeepers. Whoever comes in will know that there is an incredible amount of pressure on them not to make the same kind of stupid mistake the Green did, else they’ll be out of the team and a national villain. To be honest, Capello could and perhaps should have avoided this whole situation before the World Cup even began. At Stoke this season, I have seen a number of perspective England goalkeepers. Joe Hart for Birmingham was virtually single-handedly responsible for the 4 points that Birmingham took from Stoke this season. Paul Robinson produced a string of good saves home and away. Rob Green, however, had a big part in the three goals that Stoke scored against West Ham this season (as did Matthew Upson for that matter) and got away with dropping a long throw onto Fuller’s head last season when the referee disallowed the resulting goal. Whenever I have seen Green his positional sense has been questionable, he has been uncertain on crosses and he has failed to inspire any kind of confidence in him. Joe Hart has matured into a good shot-stopper who has added the ability to command his box to his repertoire. He is the in-form goalkeeper high on confidence and he should have been tried out in the warm up friendlies and he should have played yesterday. It’s no use going over the top on Green; he’s out of his depth and should never have been picked.

Finally, Capello needs to take a long, hard look at his two centre-backs. King was poor and may well miss the next few games through injury. Neither he nor Terry looked very good in the air, either. This didn’t surprise me with Terry, as I’ve seen at first hand that despite the bravado, he’s not one of those defenders who will eat up absolutely everything played high into his own box, but I thought King would cope better. The biggest concern, however, was pace. Terry and King are slow, but their immediate back-up, Carragher, was horrifyingly slow and it nearly cost us a goal. Upson is no better and I’m afraid that I don’t know enough about Dawson to suggest that he’d be a better option. If King is injured, I think that Carragher is over the hill and Upson just plain isn’t good enough, so I suppose it would have to be Dawson who came in. He’s young and inexperienced, but it’s an opportunity for Terry to show off his leadership skills and guide him through.

In short then, a disappointing result and performance, but no real disaster. It showed that the system we are using is the right one, but that we need to make slight changes. Capello is a smart manager who will learn from his mistakes and will hopefully get it right next time out. He doesn’t seem to be the sort to shy away from the big calls, but I have a horrible feeling that both Lampard and Gerrard will feature in the next fixture. I think that there will be a lot of emphasis on the fact that the England team weren’t too far away from where they wanted to be last night but that there is room for improvement all over the pitch.

My team for Algeria:

Hart

Johnson Terry Dawson A. Cole

Lennon Gerrard Barry J. Cole

Heskey

Rooney

P.S. What an absolute pleasure it was to have Mick McCarthy as the pundit for Nigeria’s game against Argentina. Having a manager currently plying his trade in the Premier League gave a far greater insight into what was going on on the pitch than anything that Lawrenson or even the unbearable Beglin have ever come out with. If only he commentated on England’s games.

So, we are seven games in to the greatest sporting tournament on the universe – The 2010 World Cup.
My main disappointment is the lack of classic world cup haircuts so far, the entire Romanian team bleaching their hair in 1998 was a classic. The Ronaldo (fat Brazilian one not the winker) 2002 “Tuft” , the Alexi Lalas beard and long locks in 1994 and the Carlos Valderrama, Colombia “king of perms” are legendary,

Carlos Valderama - King of Perms

Best name in the tournament so far has to be South Afica’s goal scorer Tshabalala which when pronounced properly sounds like the commentator is singing. Talking of commentary the one game I wouldn’t envious of having to commentate on is the South Korea vs Greece game. Some true tongue twisters in that game including the Greeks Patsatzoglou (Pat sat zoo glue?), Papastathopoulos (Papa stat tho po lus?) and the South Koreans having 7 Kims, 6 Lees and a Ho.

Some candidates for Villain of the week are:-

Robert Green – No explanation required!!

James Corden’s World Cup show was awful despite having the world’s greatest ever goalkeeper on it.
Katie Perry and Simon Cowell as guests with our world cup legend Banks of England parked on a sofa miles away was truly ridiculous. Corden should have ripped into Perry who apparently was wearing an “England/ USA dress” – No it wasn’t, it was the Union Flag and the Stars and Stripes- England’s flag is the Cross of St. George.
Cowell’s smugness was exposed when he mentioned exactly the same fact that Corden had some two minutes earlier “England’s opening game in 1966 was a draw and look how we did then”, a near embarrassed Gordon Banks politely responded to him as if to say, I’ve only just been asked this by that other clown!

The Only Safe Banks of England

My villain of the week is the joke that is ITV HD who ruined my viewing last night a few minutes in. They actually showed an advertisement for a cheap crappy car as England went on the attack. I grabbed the remote to switch the coverage to ITV (non HD) to see Stevie G wheeling away in celebration. I was gobsmacked. We wait 4 years for this great moment, an England goal in the World Cup and ITV HD totally screw it up. They should have their coverage switched to the bbc for one game, they do have previous on this when covering a Liverpool European game earlier in the season. The BBC are the real thing when it comes to coverage of football, like china produced in Stoke – on – Trent, home of the Potteries. Everything else is a poor second best.
I have just seen this viral of how ITV would have covered the 1966 World Cup Final
ITV does the 1966 World Cup? – thanks to @hinge832 via @jasonmanford on twitter

Let us know who your heroes and villians of the World Cup 2010 are by leaving a comment.

PS Happy 12th. Birthday to the BBC’s Match of the Day Pundit Alan Hansen. It’s 12 years since Scotland have been involved in a World Cup, that’s surely worth a celebration for all England fans.

“I’m not one for jumping over the moon or off a cliff”    Alf Ramsey

England’s World Cup campaign finally got underway.    For the neutrals it must have been a cracker.   But I’m not neutral!   Overall though  the performance wasn’t half as bad as some are making it out to be.   Gerrard started with a hunger  enthusiasm and purpose reminiscent of Beckham against Greece back in 2001.  After taking the lead we fell off with Milner badly exposed and seeing yellow.   It raises the question why he was picked when 1 he’s been ill and 2 there are other options?   The most infuriating thing about THAT huge mistake is that when Milner was replaced by Shaun Wright Phillips we’d just  seized the initiative and started to take the game to them again.  Then Green allowed that hopeful pot shot to go through him.  Keeper remains a problem for England and the question has to be asked…why hasn’t Hart been more involved in the build up to the tournament? 

In the second half we battled stoutly and after Heskey wasted that marvellous opportunity it was apparent we’d blown our chance.  Rooney tried a long range shot and Heskey put that header over.   Lampard took that free kick and skied it as badly as, as, well er, as badly as all the other free kicks in this tournament so far!!   Could it be the new lightweight ball?  As ever with England, plenty of endeavour but a lack of craft.  And, especially against solid underrated opponents like the USA, you need more than sweat. 

All isn’t lost.  Far from it in fact.  If we win the next two matches we’ll be in the round of 16.  And, crass though it sounds I honestly believe a win or draw hinged entirely on Green’s error.  But what an error.   The only way to rationalise it is to say that’s football and it happens. 

Because I don’t have an effigy of Rob Green hanging from my house to urinate on it doesn’t mean I’m happy with it all.  It’s very disappointing not to win a game you’ve been leading in.  But the end of the world it isn’t.  It’s football and these things happen sometimes.  Upwards and onwards.   What a difference a win would make.  Algeria next!!

The real irritation with the vuvuzela is the one tone deadness of the din.  No variation, no tune can be played.  Just an ongoing honk.  That’s all I intend to say about the aforementioned trumpet!   Enough has been expressed elsewhere.  It’d be hard to find an original angle!!

ANYWAY,     The South Africa v Mexico game was a bright way to start it all.   There seemed to be an abundance of space all over the park yet painfully few moments of craft to unlock either defence.After South Africa took the lead and celebrated with a delightful piece of choreography, Mexico looked beaten.    Then South Africa, being the gracious hosts they are. allowed three opponents hatfuls of space at the far post to pick their spot and equalise.  How could anyone have doubted their ability to host when they show such hospitality?   Mexican manager Aguirre seemed to age about fifteen years during the game.  At the start he was a dashing well dressed charmer.  By the end he looked bedraggled and anxious. 

As for France, well….their ideas drained away as they game went on.  The worst thing was the late  Uruguay red card because they set their stall out for the draw and rarely looked in danger.  There was that   late  penalty appeal but it smacked of desperation.  At least Thierry Henry had the decency not to look indignant.  Him complaining that a handball hadn’t been given would be a rather ironic twist to proceedings.  This will hardly help to brighten Domenech’s legacy.  

As for tonights games, it’ll be fascinating to see if Maradona can be as entertainingly mad as he was in qualification.  Anything can happen.  A disputed throw in could result in him baring his backside or something.   He makes Neil Warnock look like Bjorn Borg. 

And tonight’s other poignant question is, if the USA take the lead, or just threaten to, how many references to Belo Horizonte 1950 will the commentators cram in?   My prediction is 12.  Hopefully it won’t come to that but the longer the game goes on without us scoring the more the ideas may drain away like France’s did.  

This is Wayne Rooney’s time.  In the last twelve months he has fulfilled all the rich potential and evolved into one of the world’s best players.   He will also be aware that beiong our one truly world class player .so many of our hopes and dreams  rest on his stocky torso.   He can make as many appearances in Nike ads as he likes, now he really does have the chance to write the future.  So come on Wazza, justify the hype!!

Come on England!!!

Just a brief first blog here. As a lifelong supporter of Stoke City and England, I’ll be watching every England match at the World Cup and analysing it on here in the aftermath. The games between South Africa and Mexico and France and Uruguay have been fairly disappointing so far, but I have no doubt that there will be some real fascinating and entertaining matches on display.

I’ll be back with my report after the game against the USA. I’m afraid to say I have a horrible feeling about it, but I’m sure that Capello’s England will prove me wrong.

Since South Africa’s bid to host the 2010 World Cup was successful in 2004 it hasn’t always been a smooth road.   In fact at times it has been violently bumpy.  So many doubters (including me) bemoaning South Africa’s hosting as a legacy of advanced madcap Blatterism.  There have been question marks over everything.  Would the stadiums be ready?   Will the lights stay on?   How will the thousands of visitors travel?  Will they be safe when they do so?  Was the talk of England being secretly approached and asked to step in true?  In fact, was there any truth in the rumour Australia had been approached and asked to step in?   Even today, the horrific news of the death of Nelson Mandela’s great granddaughter adds yet another layer to the story.

Watching the fans gathering in Johannesburg is special. Of course, we can easily relate to the spectacle and colour when excited fans congregate for football, but there is another aspect to it this time.   This also symbolises a changed nation. The tyranny of apartheid is in the past and the next month is the biggest moment in African history.  Has the planet ever been so focussed on that continent as it is now?  

After the internal wrangling and political stunts we can soon observe something much more important…..the football!  Enjoy the beautiful football.  Oh by the way, enjoy the ugly football too!!    

In 2 hours  54 minutes and 58 seconds we land on planet football.   ENJOY!!!!

See video below that has a strange French Commentary!
1954 World Cup West Germany vs Hungary

The Munich air disaster cast a dark shadow over England’s 1958 campaign. To lose such brilliant young players was a tragic loss.  

However, sympathy should be limited when you consider that, despite being allowed a squad of 22, England chose to take 20…leaving two spaces vacant. Sympathy decreases further when you bear in mind that Stanley Matthews and Nat Lofthouse were left behind. Stan, despite being 43 was still at the peak of his powers and sent fear through opposition defences. Lofthouse was also in great form having scored two to beat Man Utd  in the FA cup Final. A barnstorming centre forward, the Lion of Vienna  frightened opposition defences. Stan crossing to Lofthouse could be a formidable weapon, yet they were ignored. 

So why didn’t they make the squad? WELL, one theory was that Lofthouse being a physical centre forward didn’t present an appropriate image for the FA. As for Stan, in 1950 after England’s exit Stan had been fascinated by other teams play…especially the South American sides, and decided to stay in Brazil to watch and learn. The FA blazers resented this and warned him he’d have to pay a heavy price for such gross insubordination. That would explain it partly BUT, if that was the case, why was he in the squad for 1954?   In short, we don’t know for certain why we chose to take a squad two men short….omitting our two most potent attacking force in the process and treating the tournament with contempt. WE can only speculate in exasperated disgust.

The baflling omissions of 1958 show that despite a snazzy website and encouraging females and ethnic minorities into the game the English FA have a damaging legacy of detached stuffiness to shake off.

The notion that sport and politics can exist seperately is but an idealists  dream.  At the 1974 World Cup  East Germany played West Germany for the only time. Being hosts and having a side full of stars, West Germany had started the competition among the favourites. Despite winning the first two games their public was unhappy with their form. This unease was exacerbated by Holland’s style and what seemed an inexorable march to the trophy.

Facing West Germany meant a huge security operation. The only East Germans allowed to travel were high ranking members of the communist party who, like the players were rarely out of sight of armed stasi guards. The East German regime feared huge numbers of defectors to the West.

The game itself was as dramatic as the scenario was intense. Sparwasser scored a late winner for the East which led to huge ructions in the West camp. Back at the hotel the West German players drank in the  bar and a huge row ensued. Franz Beckenbauer did a captains job and settled everyone then went up to Helmut Schoen’s room for a chat. Beckenbauer saw Schoen lying on his bed sweating profusely in a zombie like state having had a panic attack. Beckenbauer simply told him what changes were to be made. Schoen had little option but to agree.

The victory was used as propoganda by the East German government. Propoganda so blunt and forceful that Sparwasser admitted in later years that he wished with all his heart he’d never scored it.

West Germany, of course, went on to win the trophy defeating the Dutch in the final.  But every tournament has it’s own twists and turns and East v West in 1974 was a truly great World Cup story.

The quarter finals are by any historical measure a good performance for England and the problem is that some  people seem unable to get their heads around that. Our record since 66 isn’t great. In the last 44 years we have reached a World Cup semi a Euro semi and several World Cup quarter finals. In the same period Holland have reached two WC finals and a semi and won the European championship. Bulgaria have reached a WC semi. Sweden have got to a WC semi and a Euro semi. Poland have reached a WC semi and finished 3rd in 1974. Soviet Union reached two Euro Finals. Belgium have reached a Euro final and a WC semi. Turkey have reached a World Cup semi and a Euro semi.  And, of course, Greece were European champions. That’s only looking at the middle ranking sides from Europe. In 2008 and 2002 the Germans were considered to be poor yet still reached the final of those competitions.

So since 66* our record, when compared to other European football nations, gives new meaning to the word average. Yet people got annoyed because, for example, we’d never ‘win anything with Sven.’ Its unlikely we’ll win a competition whoever the manager is! We’d all love to but  actually expecting England to win a tournament is wishful thinking. There’s no great tradition to justify that sort of demand. In a tournament, if we get through the group we’ve fulfilled expectancy. Personally, I always look at getting through the group then take it from there. Usually as soon as we face a side with genuine aspirations to win the tournament we get knocked out.  1990  was great fun but, with all respect, Belgium and Cameroon weren’t contenders to lift the trophy.

I’m certainly not saying we shouldn’t try to win tournaments I’m just saying that we should keep our hopes in perspective. But 44 years never stops me dreaming!!

*our record before 66 wasn’t great…Bela Horizonte anyone?