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Sunday, June 13, 2010

Match Report: England 1 - 1 USA

After the exaggeration of the build-up, England were seemingly cruising at 1-0 through Steven Gerrard’s early goal when, in front of the nation, the world, Green let a habitual shot from Clint Dempsey slip through him and get into the net.

It is harsh on the likeable Green, who has worked hard to become England’s first choice; he’ll now be remembered for this most discomforting of mistakes.

Green’s fault was not the only trouble with England’s performance. The USA hit a post in the second half and used their swiftness to problem a defence that was upset by the half-time pulling out of Ledley King.

This was far from an adversity for England, though. The USA are a compact, very much organized defensive unit with swiftness and wiliness going frontward and the draw should not obstruct England’s advancement. They should have won, in spite of Green’s fault, having 18 shots on goal and getting into shows potential positions only to hit an infuriatingly poor final ball.

Just four minutes they had in the lead. Glen Johnson took a throw-in from the right, Frank Lampard who prodded the ball towards Wayne Rooney. It was just to the front of England’s No 10 but rolled on to Emile Heskey.

England were getting into superior positions but lacked the crisp final ball, or undeniably the movement in the box, to capitalize. Aaron Lennon should have shot from a tremendous location on the corner of the six-yard box but as a replacement for crossed in a meaningless way; Gerrard twisted Michael Bradley on the byline only for Carlos Bocanegra to clear his miss-hit cross; Johnson played a joking ball across the face that was just in front of Heskey.

That last chance missing a brave Tim Howard in torture on the grass, having taken Heskey’s earrings in his ribs. The Everton goalkeeper was particular the man-of-the-match award for his calm, cool display. England would have given for his serenity.

Rooney was ravenous of the ball and when he got it, he could not work the space he wanted for himself. He hit one swerving shot wide and set up Wright-Phillips for a good chance that Howard stood up to fine.

Having looked the more likely winners as the second half outspread, England completed the game infuriatingly. With Peter Crouch on as a late replacement, England resorted to the bad old habit of beating directionless long balls in his general direction.

That permitted Howard to waste time and if you looked-for any further confirmation of how the Americans viewed this result, you only had to watch their team quickening to celebrate with their fans at the final shriek as if they had won.

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