A late 40th minute first half shot by English Premier League-based U.S. midfielder Clint Dempsey slipped through Green's hands to the disbelief of millions of british fans around the globe. Although Dempsey's shot had some power behind it, it should have been easily handled by Green. Instead, it slowly rolled in to the goal as a deflection. This blooper, which will never be forgotten in England, became the equalizer for the USA.
When players were still "warming up" during the initial minutes of the match, a lack of concentration in the American backline saw England and Liverpool's captain Steven Gerrard penetrate the penalty box alone. Gerrard ran up the middle to take on Tim Howard and slip a low shot into the net barely at the 4th minute of the match.
The American reaction was inmediate in effort and intent, but shy. It lacked control of the mid-section of the pitch and it seemed as if the yanks took quite some time to shake off the debut jitters. England began to possess and control the ball, which in turn became the opportunity for goalkeeper -who earns his trade in the English Premier League- Tim Howard to start having tremendous saves. In the end, his continued brilliant performance earned him "Man of the Match" honors.
England dominated the match in all areas of the pitch, and Fabio Capello, England's manager, clearly outsmarted his American colleague Bob Bradley. In his effort to break the tie, Capello performed substitutions which further allowed the Brits to control the tempo and flow of the match. This, however, found absolutely no response from Bradley, who failed to get a decent read of the match even while in progress. Although American forward Jozy Altidore could have given the U.S.A. the much dreamt-of upset over England late in the game with a shot which hit the post after a deflection from Green, England had many wasted chances. The fact that Tim Howard was nominated as the Man of the Match speaks volumes of his performance, the number of spectacular saves he had and the clear dominance the Brits exercised at will on the pitch. When Bradley finally realized he should make some substitutions, he sent forward Steven Buddle to replace Jozy Altidore. While it was clear and obvious England was applying tremendous pressure on the American side of the pitch, the reasonable option for substitution should have been Jose Torres to aid in the recovery of the ball in the midfield. Bradley, however, seemed to be witnessing -or reading- a much different reality.
The Americans earned a hard-fought draw against one of the tournament favorites, mainly due to the heart and passion the players exhibited. It was definitely very far from playing head-to-head with the English team. As we have said many times before in this blog, this is where the main difference between U.S. Soccer and the rest of the world lies in. There is absolutely no possible way we can ever expect to become a soccer world power when we are managed by coaches whose only experience has been in American colleges and the MLS. Take Capello, for instance. Winner of everything in Italy with A.C. Milan in the eighties and Real Madrid in Spain. European Champions League experience for many years, European Cups, UEFA Cups, you name it, he's manged there. He is not the only manager with that kind of experience in the world cup. In fact, is the norm. How can Bradley -or any other American coach, for that matter!- compete against that? If we ever want to "wake up" to the reality of world soccer, especially at the world cup level we have to start by hiring world-class coaches.
It was nothing short of a miracle that we tied against England. We can not continue to invoke higher powers for ninety minutes in order to obtain decent results and not be embarrassed at the world cup.
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