Never has a soccer match showed me the significance of the goalkeeper position than the USA vs. England game. The two players who occupied that position, Tim Howard for the States and Robert Green for England, not only changed the course of the game, but just how qualifying may go in Group C. The door has now been opened for either Slovenia or Algeria to have a decent chance at progressing, especially if one of them wins tomorrow at the other’s expense, and much of this is because of the play of the goalies in the first game.
In the lead up to this monumental clash, the only position the English were willing to concede they had lesser players at was the goalkeeper spot, with the trio of Green, David James and Joe Hart not inspiring much confidence amongst English supporters. Tim Howard is a fantastic keeper, particularly good at one on one situations with strikers and doing a great job of organizing the defense in front of him. Whichever keeper was going to stand between the pipes for England, they would not provide the calming presence from the back that Howard does for the USA: the defenders of the USA know they have a great shot stopper behind them, while the English do not. I firmly believe the most important position on the field is goalkeeper because a fantastic goalkeeper having a great game can stop an opponent from scoring, no matter how dominant the opponent is. This was put on display tonight. Howard was phenomenal, making great saves against Shaun Wright-Phillips, Emile Heskey and Frank Lampard, as well as slide in to collect a ball that resulted in him taking cleats in the chest from a sliding Heskey. He kept the Americans in the game, while Robert Green cost his team the win. I’m aware that a team with the talent the English have should be capable of putting more than one goal into the net against the United States, but based upon what actually happened in the game, the ten outfield players for England played well enough to win 1-0. It was their goalie Green who cost them the win, by pulling a Bill Buckner on Clint Dempsey’s weak shot from 35 yards away, and allowing the ball to dribble into the net after being unable to scoop it off the ground. I could’ve stopped that ball at the age of five, not sure how Green wasn’t able to, but people will blame the ball. To Green’s credit, he hasn’t said anything along these lines because I believe he is aware that that isn’t the case. The ball wasn’t flying at him, it wasn’t dipping and ducking, it was rolling to him at about the speed of a ten year old bowling a bowling ball: not speedy at all, and one that a professional should stop 100 times out of 100. Granted, the score could’ve been 2-1 had Green not made a good quick reaction save on Jozy Altidore’s shot, after the striker was able to power past Jamie Carragher to get a rare open shot on net for the Americans. Nobody, especially the English, will remember that because Green’s absolute howler will overshadow his otherwise good game. And I know it’s cruel, but he deserves all the heat he is about to get because that one play may affect England’s attempts at finishing first place in the group and avoiding the tough winner from Group D. Once again, the English, I stress to you that soccer is a game that has two smaller competitions within it: one between the outfield players and one between the goalies. Both are important, but today showed just how vital the competition between the goalies is, with one keeper potentially ruining his team’s World Cup chances, and another providing the lifeline necessary to keep his team’s chances breathing.
While England do have the better talent, and I think they were the better outfield players today, the grittiness of the USA players, especially the defenders, balanced out the equation and made it possible for the Americans to gain a draw (a result I predicted by the way, 1-1). The central defenders, who I’ve been critical of, played their socks off, particularly Jay DeMerit, who silenced Wayne Rooney for much of the match. World class striker Rooney was not nearly as effective as he should’ve been in this game, and much of that had to do with DeMerit’s tenacious play, and how he refused to allow Rooney any space to work with. I thought Michael Bradley did a great job in the center of midfield. He was combating the middle of the park with superstars Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, and more than held his own against them (maybe would’ve done better had Maurice Edu or Jose Torres been in the game instead of Ricardo Clark). Hopefully he receives the necessary help in the center of the park in the next game versus Slovenia, allowing him to take control of the game the way he has in the past for the USA. Up front, the USA did not look great though. Other than the one chance Altidore created, I never really saw any venom from the strike partnership of Altidore and Robbie Findley, no spark that told me they were going to score at any point in the match. I wonder if maybe the solution to this is to bench Jozy Altidore (a tough statement for me to make since I just got my USA jersey with his name on the back). I think the speed of Findley is a weapon that if unlocked could be key for the USA’s chances of progressing, and that maybe Edson Buddle may be the player to do that. I know it was a friendly against a weaker team, but Buddle and Findley looked better together than Altidore and Findley, maybe that partnership should be given a shot against Slovenia. Just a thought.
I have not only watched the USA vs. England game, but all five matches that have been played. The first day was a little disappointing to me. The South Africa vs. Mexico game didn’t really take off until the second half, and while Tshabalala’s goal was very good, the lame goal Rafael Marquez scored made for somewhat of a dud first game. It looked great compared to the next game though. Shame on Uruguay for putting an unexpected five players on their backline, but even more blame sits with the French who were unable to break them down. France, as I predicted, look set to implode. None of the players played with the passion and the fire expected of a team at the World Cup, and this terrible dynamic with Domenech may cause this talented team to not progress to the knockout rounds. I still like my pick of Mexico winning the group, with South Africa finishing second. Day two was much better though.
My favorite team performance so far has been South Korea’s, who ran a very slow Greece team off the park with its effective passing and work rate. The Koreans look like a well oiled machine, and even though I picked the Nigerians to advance, I would love to see South Korea take the second spot behind Argentina. Ji Sung Park is a fantastic talent, as his goal today proved, and I would love to see him make the knockout stages in what he has said is his last World Cup final. Argentina looked dangerous, but was surprisingly unable to finish. This is OK against a Nigerian team that didn’t look dangerous except for one shot in the second half that required a good save from the Argentine goalkeeper, but this will not work in the latter stages of the tournament. Overall, I believe the first matchday of the tournament will get better as we go along. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s three matches, all I expect to be exciting, as well as high quality in terms of the performances of the teams on the pitches. They should be interesting to observe, and make it worthwhile to wake up at 8 AM, when I would much rather be sleeping.
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