Green’s costly mistake gives Americans a tie
The dreaded lapse came. It came early and in an eerily familiar manner. But after fortune intervened and improvement followed, the United States did what it needed to preserve a satisfactory 1-1 draw with England in the first match of Group C at the 2010 World Cup.
Both teams paid for their noted insecurities, but the net result left them in the same place that they had started entering the match.
Four years after giving up an opening goal to the Czech Republic in the fifth minute of their first match of the 2006 World Cup, the Americans did worse by one minute against the English to start their 2010 campaign. The outside of Steven Gerrard’s right foot did the damage after the midfielder slipped behind the sleeping U.S. defense to latch on to a one-touch ball from Emile Heskey. It was the seventh time in 19 World Cup matches since 1990 that the U.S. surrendered a goal in the opening 15 minutes.
But Robert Green, given the nod to start at goalkeeper for England from a trio of uncertain options, threw the U.S. a lifeline in the 40th minute. Called upon for a routine stop after Clint Dempsey spun right and left to free himself from Gerrard, Green fumbled his save attempt and only could bury his face in the grass after the ball trickled across the goal line.
The U.S. came closest to breaking the deadlock during a much more composed second half. Jozy Altidore, coming off an ankle injury that put his readiness into question, created the best chance in the 65th minute, using his speed and brawn to round Jamie Carragher on the left side. Green, again, only got a piece of the American forward’s well-placed shot, but the keeper was rescued by the woodwork as his parry ricocheted off the near post.
England lost its precision in the face of a familiar goalkeeper, Everton’s Tim Howard, who stood his ground for the Americans. Howard faced down shots by a pair of fellow English Premier League players — Heskey on a breakaway down the middle in the 52nd minute and Shaun Wright-Phillips from close range on the left in the 75th.
