ROB GREEN dropped a clanger in 40.
The West Ham keeper may not play for England again. I knew we should have played big Joe Hart, even if he is a rookie. Hart is the form keeper.
LEDLEY KING felt his groin in the first half. Looked immobile. Carragher replaced him at half time.
JAMES MILNER was off the pace on the left wing after missing two days training. And playing central midfield for Aston Villa all season. Milner fouled right back Steve Cherundolo three times and could have been given a yellow card for the first “tackle”. He got one for the third in 26 minutes.
Boldly, Capello took Milner off in 30 and put Shaun Wright-Phillips on the left. The right call.
EMILE HESKEY was our most effective player. But when he had a one-on-one, he shot straight at Tim Howard. Nobody expected him to score.
Those were the four big selection calls : Green, King, Milner and Heskey. Only Heskey played well.
Two of the four had to go off. It would have been better to bring Michael Dawson on for King but Capello did not dare to give the Spurs centreback his debut in the middle of a World Cup game. At least Dawson is fit. And he plays English football. Which is all that’s needed against the USA
GERRARD did well and scored a good goal in 3 minutes and 34 seconds. Johnson throw to Lampard, his pass missed Rooney, and Heskey came off his marker to play Gerrard in.The skipper took one touch and stabbed past the advancing Tim Howard with the outside of his big right boot.
Heskey, Gerrard and Johnson played well. Lampard filled holes in the Barry role and got forward when he could. We had little fluency and less flair and Heskey and SWP both hit the keeper when they had chances to win the game.
Most of the time we could not string four passes together. Rooney was anonymous and only had two shots wide. Lennon had lively moments but his final ball was poor.
Joe Cole has been ill for three days.
USA’s Bob Bradley is a very good coach who does well with some very fit athletes.
Landon Donovan and Dempsey came infield and ran the game at times, as SWP and Lennon stood on the touchlines and watched us being outnumbered in midfield.
That often happens with 4-4-2 and wingers. Should we play 4-5-1?
Capello would like to give us a feast but it can only be a picnic. The cupboard is bare. He hardly has the ingredients for a picnic. This was a massive reality check for him. He thought : American artisans 1 English artisans 1.That was the reality. Two teams of artisans played a 1-1 draw.
But we didn’t lose. We can win the next two games. Next week is the week that Fabio Capello earns his £6 million.
On Monday morning I’ll write about England, France, Slovenia, Serbia and Argentina.
Can’t do it now. This is one of those summer days when the old beatnik has to put on a linen jacket and go out to a cultural event.