The delusion is over

The first thing I said to my co-conspirator on this blog when we were watching the game was "Capello's starting Green?!? Mistake." And all day long I was saying I saw a draw, 1-1 or 0-0, but I was leaning to the score draw. And as I saw the starting lineup I got more confident with my prediction.

There were huge errors in the starting lineup. I have been saying for weeks that I thought Crouch should start rather than Heskey. Capello has no left winger on the squad, and starting an unfit Milner was stupid. We all know that Gerrard and Lampard can't play together. And Robert Green should never been the number 1.

First let's start with the Defense. I thought the starting back four was rather decent. King and Terry seemed to work well together, and the full backs were nothing special but I felt like they didn't make any major mistakes. When Carragher came on in the second half, I just knew it would be ugly, and he was terrorized by the stronger and faster Jozy Altidore.

In the midfield, it was anarchy.I think it was clear that James Milner had not gotten over the 'bug' he had this week and was not fit to play. He was slow and out of position and all together, he never had a chance to show his quality. On the right, Lennon kept being double teamed as the US midfield and defense forced play to the left side where Shaun Wright-Phillips came on for Milner and was rather poor. Lennon never had a chance to play his game and as usual, England forced alot of play up the left because the US shut off the space for Lennon and Capello couldn't be bothered to bring a left-footed winger(like Adam Johnson) or play Joe Cole who can be quite handy over there. In the middle, I think there was a clear hole where there should have been a holding midfielder. Though I still argue bringing Gareth Barry was a mistake, I think that he would have been a big help. And as I mentioned already, Lampard and Gerrard should not play in the middle together. They are both playmakers and seemed to get in each other's way quite a few times. before the game I would have argued for benching Gerrard, but Isomeone brought up a good point that Lampard's record for England is poor while Gerrard's is very good. But in the end, Capello needs to grow some balls and bench one of the two and play a balanced team.

Up front, it was a similar story. Capello started Rooney and Heskey. I don't think there is anyone that wouldn't start Heskey, but in my opinion, Heskey should have not even made the final squad for the World Cup. Heskey did little to make me believe that I was wrong about him. He brought down a few balls and lost them, put out a poor pass which was lost, or put a horrid shot right into Tim Howard's Chest, and that was after putting his boot into Howard's chest which he must have thought would make him drop those shots. I thought when Crouch finally came on, the possession was cleaner and Crouch sharpened the attack again after the lovely build to the early goal. Rooney was not up to his game, which was surprising. Rooney could not get things going and he got frustrated and once that happened, he was never going to doing anything and Defoe should have been put on to try to sneak that winner that never came.

Finally, what can I say about the keeper? A simple "I told ya so." Or maybe a "DUH!" Or maybe to use some tact, "Bad Capello! Bad!" Of the 3 keepers he brought we have a relegated keeper (who has been amazing for the final few weeks for Pompey), a nearly relegated keeper(who was responsible for many of the goals given up by West Ham), and a midtable keeper(who was consistent all season long and was a huge factor in the team being as good as it was). Based on those kind of statements there should be two obvious conclusions. First, Robert Green is absolutely no better than third. Secondly, Joe Hart is probably first due to his consistency. And this is before we even consider that David James is known as Calamity James. I think it was a mistake to start Robert Green. Fact! But it also now makes more problems as He either has to put the arm around his shoulder and start Green again, or bench him at which point he might as well be sent home. So it's either put the team in danger for the final two group games or leave yourself with two keepers. I think unfortunately, it's time for Green to go home and Hart to begin his national team Career as he is the future for England.

So there are two more group games. Algeria and then Slovenia. I think considering that the Group D winner plays the runner up in group C, it is going to be important to win this group especially after seeing the Germans dismantle the Aussies. I think both England and the U.S. are in the same position and both know this. It is going to come down to goal difference as I think both teams will step up their games. I think considering this, i would have to conclude that the team that could score more goals is England considering the scorers that the team has. England has so much talent that the nation should be severely disappointed in the draw, although I told Skippy that I didn't think either team deserved a point from that game. The U.S. was poor but should have won with the vastly improved second half performance and England Should have scored 5 times in the first half hour. In the end, the group is wide open with Slovenia taking three points against Algeria. Time to be positive again...