Wind the clock back, what three years, and West Ham fans were complaining, utterly illogically given history, of an England bias against West Ham. Why isn't Green in goal, they protested, he's the best England keeper by a mile! I begged to differ. I talked about his weaknesses on crosses, his suspect temperament and his failure to stamp himself on a game. God I was crucified! At that time I was on the Org and, because I dared to suggest that Green was not an international keeper, a campaign was started to have me banned. I was a traitor, a Spud, and knew nothing about football.
My main point at that time was that if Green played and cocked up, his confidence could be destroyed. I quoted Robinson and then Carson, and asked, what would West Ham gain from that? He won't make a mistake, they said. He's brilliant, they said. You're a Spud, they said. Well fcuk me, if that wasn't the cock up to end all cock ups tonight, I don't know what is!
But still there will be some who will quote the second half save or say that we should have scored more at the other end. They will bury their heads in their arses and put their balls in their ears. Na na na na, I'm not listening. Don't blame Green, blame Terry, or King, or Heskey, or Fat Frank, or Capello, or the FA for appointing an Italian.
But face facts, Green was always a disaster waiting to happen. Thank God it happened today and not in the final. Now Capello knows what I have known all along, that Green is a nearly man, a Graeme Hick or Mark Ramprakash figure. He's good, bloody good until the pressure builds...and then he cracks.
I suspect Green's international career ended tonight. Indeed, I suspect that had we had three substitutions open to us at half time, Green would have been spared the second 45 minutes. Look at "that save" closely. The ball hit Green's trailing hand, the wrong hand, which is why he needed the post to save him. We lost two World Cup points tonight because of Green and could have lost three. Does ANYBODY believe Hart, James or Robinson would have conceded that goal? You are in Claret and Blue denial if you do!
And for the record, this is what I said on here earlier today: "Big question - where's the evidence of this terrible ball? It seems to be behaving fairly normally to me. Having said that, it will now take a terrible swerve tonight and Green will end up looking a clown!" That looks like another one I've got right then.
33 comments:
You have got it right HF! But it would be wrong to focus on Rob Green alone and not take stock of the fact that once again England was at best a very average team. England does not even come close to the likes of Spain and Brazil. Greece is of course far-far worse than that as I predicted. But, we have to have a reality check rather than pretend that Green is the only problem with the England team. England was rather poor for a number of games now including those they have actually won. Barring a miracle like the one achieved by Greece in Euro 2004 it is totally unrealistic to expect this England to win the World Cup!
You will be bowing down at the alter of Fanno when we win it Sav. Capello will learn from tonight. Green will be dropped and so will Lennon and Wright Phillips. Barry and Cole will come in to midfield for the big games and Dawson will be alonside Terry in the final.
When we beat you 4-0 a few seasons ago I said he was pants,3 of the goals that day were headers from crosses 8 yards out.keepers should come for them but green shite them all day and stayed on his line.Englands best keeper is James then hart then Ben Forster,I am yid but will say Robbs not up to it too.I don't even think greens a good shot stoper.if you can get 5 million for him take it but you have no hope now.kevtheyid
I'll be very happy to admit I was wrong and you were right, if the miracle happens. But have now doubt that's is what it will take for this England team to win the World Cup. I was at Wembley in 1966 cheering the real England team towards winning the World Cup. This one bears no resemblance to any of that. But, for one who prides yourself in being capable of seperating facts from dreams and arguing with real points you have come rather short of convincing arguments in this instance.
I hope it doesn't ruin the man, redeemed himself with the great save though, imagine if that went in!
What did Lennon do wrong exactly?
What did Lennon do right exactly?
errrrm, slid Heskey through perfectly. Constantly got to the byline to whip in good crosses, looked our only threat from wide, gave their left back a torrid time, want more?
You previously mentioned "three relatively pointless fixtures so far. None of South Africa, Mexico, France, Uruguay, South Korea or Greece are going to win the World Cup are they?"
Well based on England's preformance they all look better bets to win.
You may say that the US were lucky to get their goal, but I think that they deserved their point and are looking much more like a team than the english lot, who look more like a bunch of players than a team.
Oh and one last thing, Argentina barely scrapped a win showing that your 6-0 prediction was, to say the least, wrong.
First of all I am a neutral fan who watched the game tonight and I have to say Im astonished at the ineptness of that England performance. Contrary to what their media might be reporting England where quite simply rubbish taking nothing away from the result for the USA.
The Americans were organised, dedicated , passed the ball better and each player to a man knew what he was doing and stuck to the game plan. Well done USA you deserved your point.
England on the other hand had no cohesion, could not string more than 3 passes together, played route one long ball it was primal football if im honest with players of that caliber it is not really good enough. They were all over the place.
Heskey gave the ball away everytime except for one pass to Gerrard in the 4th min. He could not hit a barn door if he tried he was useless.
Rooney did nothing for the whole game at least he kept his cool.
Terry was slow and indecisive Carragher likewise god help them when they come against a quality side no offence intended USA.
Gerrard and lampard does not work it never worked when will they realise this, neither of them are proper footballing midfieders. They dont look for the ball enough and are unable to link play up. IT DOESNT WORK. Think of how Spain play or Argentina, how their midfielders knock it about and build up phases. Gerrard and Lampard are not capable of doing this sooner England realise the better.
Joe Cole was left on the bench. Unbelievable.
Heskey was left on the pitch till the 90 min.
I wont to see England do well but I fear the team, fans and media are somewhat deluded. Theres more chance of hell freezing over than England winning this world cup. They have major problems.
Well done again USA
For the record, I thought SWP and Lennon both had terrible performances tonight. Very poor performance by Capello as well for his selections.
Lennon done Imagine.
Yep he did slide Heskey through but his crosses were awful and he was anonymous for most of the game.
Used his pace to get into the box and played a couple of decent pull backs and covered well for Johnson to get forward and float in crosses which he's better at.
To be fair Lennon didn't do too much wrong tonight and was much better than SWP or Milner.
Carragher looked slow and was lucky with that arm across the yank's face.
Rooney huffed and puffed without much product, again.
Would have liked to see Cole come on at some point but he's probably in Capello's bad books for getting involved in transfer talks whilst on WC duty.
We did ok this is the US team that beat Spain(the favourites) and went up 2-0 against Argentina - where is the problem?
nope, crosses were good, positioning of other players were awful. The anonymous ones were Lampard and Rooney.
We'd have won if Heskey could score
I think Capello should keep Green as goalkeeper, main reason being, he's got his howler out of the way. He'll learn from this and become a better player for it. It would be stupid to blame the Green solely for us only getting a draw, yes it was a very bad mistake, but I thought England were terrible today, and everyone should take the blame.
To much blame gets put on the goalkeeper, the fact is, if it had been Gerrard who had messed up say, given away the ball to a striker who then scored, he'd have our full support.
It's so typical of the English. Someone has to be blamed! It was a group game, we are not out of the competition, nor should we think that we have no chance due to one awful performance.
Well, you've finally been vindicated after 3 years of putting your neck on the line. Congratulations. You will have to concede you were wrong on the fact he's a good shot stopper though lol!! I'm gutted for Green and West Ham though. It's obvious Gullivan were looking to offload him this summer believing he would do ok at best this WC campaign. We'll get nothing for him now and it looks like WH will have to give him a new deal. Of course he won't be able to demand a better deal!!
David James is injured. So is Barry and now Ledley King. Milner weren't fit and Rio didn't even last the training sessions. Carragher was begged to come in and he did well didn't he? Dawson hasn't even played for England yet.SWP was pants and Walcott would have scored instead of crossing like Lennon. Rooney could have done with a rest instead of playing in the two last friendlies and we could have tried a plan B strike force. Didn't see a plan B strike force last night, didn't even see a plan B. We could still be playing now, we weren't ever gonna score. Green made one mistake. Capello has made how many? Forget your obsession with Green and look at the larger picture.
I don't think England are particularly spoiled for choice between the sticks these days. Greens is a decent keeper but he's not world class. Unfortunately I don't think there is anyone better than him available to England.
I'm not an Englander but I'm a sympathetic spectator who wishes them well. But I always get the feeling there are slightly inflated expectations about what the team can achieve. semi-finalist finish would be a good result. Although who knows...
Thought England offered very little down the left last night. Milner looked nervous and a disaster waiting to happen (in the end was Green performed that role). SWP produced nothing. On the right Glen Johnson looked good and Heskey looked a constant cause for concern. If he can stay on side he'll be a nuisance for any opponents.
Otherwise it all looked a bit ordinary.
Just as a postscript Gerrard gave the ball away on a number of occasions. Heskey should have scored. But there is no-one that gets punished like a keeper for an error.
Hi M2C, good to see you looking in mate. It hasn't really taken 3 years has it? Bolton at home two seasons back, Bolton away last season? In fact Green has looked very average all season hasn't he?
To everybody else who is trying to shift the blame, just as I predicted you would, the hard and simple fact is that we would have won 1-0 had Green not palmed that ball into his own net!
Personally, I thought Howard could have done a lot better for Gerrard's tap-in! It wasn't hit hard...it was on the deck...and it was close to him! But do you think any of the Yanks would have told him after the game that had he saved it, THEY would have won 1-0?!! Umm, no!
The point being...it's all hypothetical now! 'If' he hadn't done that? 'Had he not' allowed the ball to slip through his gloves? He DID, so let's get over it! Keepers make mistakes! It just so happens that when you're at the biggest tournament in football and you do it, people tend to focus on it slightly more.
If you're going to be hypothetical, then you must allow the 'if' and 'but' argument in the cases of Heskey's chance, Green's save, Rooney's anonymity etc etc...ad infinitum!
England's aim is to operate as an efficient single unit...all for one, and one for all to coin a phrase. Therefore, they take the blame as a SINGLE unit!
Green should not shoulder the blame and be held accountable for a 'loss' of 2 points! On that showing England were lucky to get one!
Green was man enough to face the media afterwards and answer the impending criticism with honesty and professionalism...and that's just part of the reason that he'll be the first name on Capello's team sheet for the next game!
Shouldn't that be an own goal then? This is typical. The whole country is in denial again looking for a scapegoat and guess what, they found one in Robert Green. Some things never change! Yes, England could have won the game if Green saved that shot but they could have also lost it if he didn't save the one in the second half. How come this howler by Green is allowed to cover the more obvious fact that the whole team is very poor?!!! If England were not in the easiest group I would bet against them qualifying the way the play. This is not about a single mistake by the goalkeeper. Did you count how many other mistakes and bad plays took place all over the field for the whole of the ninety minutes?
Come off it Shaun, there are mistakes and mistakes. That wasn't just an error that was catastrophically poor keeping and, if it was totally out of character, then fair enough. But Green isn't an international keeper and this was always going to happen. I predicted it. I've been warning about this for 3 years now. He hasn't got the composure and temperament. God help us if he is picked and opposition managers wake up to how hopeless he is if you crowd him at corners.
As for the "save", it hit his wrong hand and that hand was not strong enough to turn it around the post. Green was lucky there unfortunately.
Methinks RG's unfortunate blunder only conveniently serves to facilitate your low opinion of him?
Robert Green IS an international keeper because Fabio Capello deems that this should be so! Simple! He must be doing something right no?
David James isn't known as 'Calamity' for nothing and Joe Hart is a quality keeper, but he hasn't got the experience for this big stage!
It must make a nice warm happy feeling inside you when things go as badly as you predicted... you love to be right when things go wrong... I wonder why you never predict good things, is it because only disaster, failure and heartache turn you on?
LOL Shaun, don't become a barrister! "Methinks the smoking gun in the accused's hand, and the recording shown all around the world as he fired the gun that murdered the victim, only conveniently facilitates your opinion that he is the murderer."
Yep Green's catastrophic blunder does "conveniently" vindicate my opinion that he is not good enough to play for England. He proved me right!
Anon said 'and Walcott would have scored instead of crossing like Lennon.'
Bullshit. Walcott is crap which is why he isn't even in the squad. The little gimp is a striker not a winger and the longer he is played on the wing the harder it will be for this overated midget to retrieve his flagging career.
If Lennon had shot from that difficult angle against a top keeper in Howard then it would have most likely have been saved. You'd then be moaning that he didn't pass! Facts are he did the right thing but the defender did a great tackle. Lennon was good IMO but didn't see enough of the ball.
I'm lost for words on green's performance and that of smile heskey, who for the 165th game in a row was shit! How can heskey be there!!! All this talk of him being good with Rooney is rubbish. Look at crouchies England record! Defoe didn't even get on when we needed to poach a goal. Unbelievable! Loads of strikes left at home inc Carlton Cole and darren bent would have been better choices than heskey!!!!!!!
We should have seen this coming as in summary we have green in goal and heskey up top :-(
Get green and heskey out and we might get out of the group!
I have predicted that England will win this World Cup actually. And I'll repeat that prediction now! Dawson will score the winner!
Let me get this right by asking a question
How would Cashley Cole do playing at right back ???
In anticipation of your answer, let me ask why you are all slagging SWP off when he was stuck on the LEFT wing ?
Unbiased ?
Sort it out !!!!
As for the rest of the game.
Green made a mistake. Outfield players make mistakes all the time, but the consequences are rarely that bad, and that is an accepted part of being a goalie. One really bad mistake and you're out.
Hart should take over (until he makes a mistake.... then James until etc etc.)
Bland, uninspiring and not good enough to get much futher than the group stages.
Holland anybody ??
The issue with SWP is his poor ball control. He has an incredibly heavy touch and always knocks the ball a yard ahead of himself, making it so easy for quality defenders to tackle him. Zola was of the opinion that left footers are better on the right and vice versa of course! And in Zola we trusted! What a shame Spector wasn't at left back last night! SWP was switched to the right briefly and was no better there!
Lennon's error was in delivering that cross too early. Had he closed on the goal, he would have taken Howard out of the equation and could then have pulled the ball back rather than across the goal. We would have scored had he made the right choice!
The Heskey knockers obviously were not watching the game. Who created our goal? Heskey played well, everything that was good went through him.
lennon will be our best player this world cup, no doubt about it. was our best player against USA and will make lampard and rooney look silly in terms of effort.
I WAS watching the match HF, and I couldn't agree with you more...Heskey has got a great set of knockers!!
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