The great overreaction and corners…

Whatever England’s result against the USA last night, there’d have been a disproportionate response one way or the other.

A win would have been greeted with “bring on the rest of the world” type mentality as everyone decreed that England were ready to go all the way.

A defeat would have been a complete disaster, there’d have been calls for Fabio Capello’s head and the players would have been vilified in the press.

A draw, as we’ve seen, is only just up a level or two from a defeat.

The problem with a tournament like this is that it brings out the worst in people with their reactions, including the pundits and the press.  We’re so bloody engrossed with the event that we have this insatiable appetite for over-analysis.  Suddenly those people who couldn’t name a single Bolton Wanderers player seem to want to contribute to the goalkeeping debate or whether England should play 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1.

I deliberately avoided Facebook pre-game for fears of statuses saying “Heskey wtf” and things like that.  In fairness to Heskey, he justified his selection with a fine display as a target man (should have scored though).  After the game there was one comment on Facebook suggesting that Capello should “fuck off”.  Brilliant.

The mass hysteria drives me insane a little bit.  That the whole country pulls together and heads to pubs to watch the games and that people don their England shirts and St George’s crosses is great – I love that.  However, the whole overreaction to anything and everything (either one extreme or the other) is just a little over the top.  I guess it’s natural given all the hype, but I do wish people would calm down a little and be a little more rational and objective.

To be honest, the way that England’s night went I was fairly content with a draw.  It just seemed like one of those nights where everything went wrong, and for the first time the previously faultless Capello perhaps made one or two errors.

There was obviously the huge Rob Green blunder that I’ll come to later, James Milner only lasting thirty minutes in which he contributed little but fouls (should he have played if he wasn’t 100%?), Ledley King (himself a stand-in centre half) being injured and only lasting one half, Wayne Rooney having a quiet night, Frank Lampard passing to the USA players most of the evening and Jamie Carragher looking less comfortable than piles.

With the way that everything went for England, it did appear to be “one of those nights”.  When it is one of those nights, if you can get through relatively unscathed, it’s no bad thing.

The fact is that this was (in theory) England’s toughest group game, and by some distance.  Algeria and Slovenia will be bright on occasions, and Algeria’s pace could cause a few problems, but those are two games England should be expected to win.  This one was never necessarily a given.  Granted, it’s disappointing that England didn’t win and yes, if they want to win the World Cup they should be beating teams like the USA, but it’s by no means the end of the world.  The USA are well organised, have had some great results over the past few years and with the relationship between the two countries and the English-based nature of a number of their players, this was a huge game for them.

England should still take seven points from the group stages and if they do, they should win the group.  I don’t think that the USA will pick up two wins in their next two games, although I suspect that they will qualify behind England.  If England do win the group, then this result will be quite quickly forgotten.

People often say that you can’t win the World Cup in the group stages, but you can lose it.  It’s a bit of a cliche, but as with most cliches, that’s because it’s accurate and true.  Group games don’t always go to plan and there’s often a few surprise results, particularly in the first set of games.  That happens.  It’s all about getting through.  That’s all that matters.  In the last World Cup, France were dreadful in the group stages, scraping through behind Switzerland.  They ended up in the final though.  It doesn’t really matter how you get through, as long as you do get through.  England are still very well set to get through.  Should they fail to beat Algeria, some of the mass hysteria will be a little more justified.

With Ledley King injured, I’d be very wary of playing Carragher with John Terry against Algeria.  Carragher looked well off the pace last night.  He’s not really had a good season for Liverpool which is why it was a little surprising that Capello begged him to come back into the England fold.  Algeria are lively and have pace, and Terry and Carragher would be a little too immobile for me.  I’d play Michael Dawson with Terry given that Dawson’s probably the centre half out of all those with England who had the best season.  Matthew Upson’s probably above him in the pecking order, given that Dawson only came into the squad from the standby list, but Upson’s not had a great season.

I also think that Gerrard needs to be freed somehow, be it playing him on the left or behind Rooney.  His goal was good last night, but other than that he wasn’t involved as much as you’d hope for someone like him.  He and Lampard, despite what the ITV pundits said, weren’t at their best last night and Gerrard needs to be freed somehow.  Lampard too, if possible – that’s where Gareth Barry could be crucial.

So, to Rob Green…

Firstly, it’s not his fault.  He didn’t mean to do it.  I feel sorry for him in that sense.  He must feel pretty rubbish about it.

Should he have even been the position to do what he did though?  And I don’t mean, should he have been a little more to his right, (yes), I mean should he have been playing?

I’ve said a few times that I wouldn’t have even taken him to South Africa.  My three goalkeepers would have been David James, Joe Hart and Paul Robinson.  I’ve had doubts about quite how good Green is going back to his early days at Norwich when he was much hyped.  I raised it the other day on here too.

I genuinely believe that anyone who has seen much of Rob Green should have known that something like last night was a distinct possibility.  He makes mistakes.  He does it on a fairly regular basis.  He never, ever looks confident.  He always looks nervous and a little apologetic.  He exudes no confidence at all and that can’t bode well for those in front of him.  In the tunnel, pre-match, he looked incredibly tense.  He also looks a bit like a mouse.

As a Birmingham City fan, I’m a little biased perhaps, but I think that Joe Hart is the best English goalkeeper and in that sense, I’d have played him.  I do accept that his lack of experience could be an issue, and that’s why I think that Capello erred in not playing Hart more during the course of the season when he had opportunities to do so and when it was obvious that he was in fine form – the Egypt friendly, for example.

James too makes the odd mistake, but he has pretty much cut them out now and he’s someone that those in front of him have played with many, many times.  James is experienced and, whilst not perfect, is fairly reliable.  He’s also someone you’d back to bounce back from any error – I suspect that Green’s mistake could be a career-ender.

Green should not play for England again in this tournament.  I don’t care what it does to his confidence, as that’s not important in the grand scheme of things now.  He is simply not good enough and unfortunately that’s been highlighted on the biggest stage.  It’s not terminal for England though, although it could be for Green.  Much was made of his “redemption” save from Jozy Altidore in the second half.  The fact is that his positioning for that was poor, he got very, very lucky and he was an inch away from pushing the ball into his own net at the near post.

If he does play again, apparently the whole England team will be behind him.  That may help…

I actually have no problem with Capello’s decision not to name his side until a couple of hours before the game when it comes to outfield players, but I do wonder whether the uncertainty about the goalkeeping position has helped.  It’s such a specialist position and I can’t help thinking that it would have been better to know who your first choice ‘keeper is well in advance, work with him, play him for all friendlies and work with that.  It may not have prevented what happened, and probably wouldn’t, but I can’t see that Capello’s stance helped in any way in that position.

Otherwise though, it’s far from the end of the world for England and they’re still well set.  Had they lost, it still wouldn’t have been the end of the world, but they drew, created a fair few chances, played ok in spells, got the toughest game of the group out of the way and, as I said above, did all of that when everything seemed to go against them.  It’s alright, for now.

Finally, is it just me who thinks that the corner quadrants are ridiculously over-sized?  Seriously, next time you see someone take a corner, have a look – they appear to stretch two yards along both the goal-line and touchline.  Players are taking corners from about two yards in field.  It’s ridiculous.  More ridiculous than the vuvuzelas.