England 1 – 1 USA

This was the real blockbuster game of Match Day 2. The excitement and tension in England was almost too much to bear at times. The American starting line-up was much as expected, but it was the England starting XI that was to draw the most media attention. Robert Green was to start in goal, keeping out the more experienced David James and the in-form Joe Hart. The much talked about central midfield pairing was composed of Lampard and Gerrard, with James Milner starting on the left ahead of Joe Cole.

England got the start of their dreams when Emile Heskey held off his marker to slip a ball into the box for an advancing Gerrard who finished coolly with the outside of his right boot into the bottom corner. The England fans went into delirium. It was as if the pressure pot had just exploded. There was a real relief of tension. England are invariably poor in their first game of major tournaments, but after that early goal there was a real belief that they could go on and win this one comfortably.

England bossed most of the first half, creating a couple of good openings. Aaron Lennon looked dangerous down the right flank, but he didn’t see enough of the ball. Everything seemed to be going well for a comfortable England side until another horrendous goalkeeping gaffe took the wind out of their sails. Clint Dempsey twisted and turned his marker on the edge of the England area and released a pot-shot from 25-yards which was low, straight and bounced rather tamely to the waiting Green. The on looking England fans were already picking out the runner that Green was to bowl the ball out to when the unthinkable happened. The ball slipped past Green off the edge of his right hand and trickled tamely into the net. The pathetic image of Green scrambling back to try and atone for his error will still be fresh in the mind of every England fan this morning.

I believe that Green was the wrong choice to start in goal, and that Capello should have put faith in the experience of David James. Even though James can sometimes produce errors of that magnitude, they don’t seem to affect him. James can shrug those misdemeanours off, whereas I feel that mistake will haunt Green. I can only hope that Capello sees sense and replaces the hapless Hammers ‘keeper for the next game. The man that mistake will have upset most is West Ham chairman David Gold who has told Green he won’t be receiving a new contract at the London club, presumably with a view to attracting offers from potential suitors. That mistake is likely to have knocked a fair few quid off his market value. Mistakes such as those on the World stage aren’t forgotten in a hurry.

Green went someway to making up for his error in the second half when he palmed a powerful Altidore effort onto the crossbar. It was a let-off for England who still looked rattled by Dempsey’s goal just before half time. It was also a stark illustration of the lack of pace between England’s centre back pairing – which now composed of Carragher and Terry, King going off at half time through injury. The top teams will look to expose this weakness should England advance out of their group.

America were having a fairly solid game, without being too inspirational. It was England who were creating the lion’s share of chances, but they failed to finish any of them off. The best one fell to Emile Heskey who was put through on goal by a lovely Aaron Lennon through-ball. The whole of England was willing him on, but in their hearts they all knew what was about to happen. As per usual, the lumbering striker, who otherwise had a good game, shot straight at Tim Howard in the American goal. He just cannot seem to score, even when it is laid on a plate for him. The other chance fell to Shaun Wright-Phillips who came on for Milner after 30 minutes. He was found with space on the left hand side of the area, and probably had time to take a touch and control, but instead fired over the bar.

After that, neither team managed to make any notable openings, and the game petered out to a draw. It is a result which will please Americans fans a lot more than the English. England will now probably have to outscore the Americans in their two remaining games to finish top of the group, which also means they now cannot afford to rest their best players. With all due respect to Algeria and Slovenia, England have more than enough quality in their second-string line-ups to dispatch both of them comfortably. Although it was a disappointing result to English eyes, there are still positives they can take from the game. If they can be more clinical in front of goal, then they can win their other two group games easily. If Green hadn’t made that horrific mistake, then England would have felt that it was a solid 1-0 victory. The English media don’t much care for optimism in the face of a blunder like that, though. It’s too much of a good excuse to plaster giant pictures of Rob Green across their back pages with disparaging headlines. True, it was an horrendous error, but England should still comfortably advance from their group.

 South Korea 2 – 0 Greece

This inauspicious-sounding game was matched by the sparse crowds. There were many empty seats to be seen and the atmosphere was noticeably more subdued than any of the other games so far. That being said, it was entertaining enough.

Greece looked all at sea throughout the 90 minutes. They don’t have enough quality in any area of the pitch to make it through the group stages. It’s a wonder they’re even at the World Cup when teams like Croatia and Czech Republic missed out.

South Korea easily put Greece to the sword. People often praise the South Koreans for their work rate and organisation, but fail to notice they are a very technically skilled side. Their passing against Greece was fast and slick at times, making the Greeks look like a local Sunday League side. Their first goal came from a free kick near the corner flag, with some very weak marking allowing Lee Jung-soo to tap in at the far post. Some more set-piece defence training needs to be done by Greece if they want to stick around in this World Cup.

South Korea’s second came from a defensive blunder at the back by Greece. Loukas Vyntra horribly mis-controlled a pass whilst under no apparent pressure, allowing Park Ji-sung to nip in and steal the ball. A strong burst into the box evaded both defenders and he slotted the ball calmly past the advancing Tzorvas. It was a finish of real quality from the Manchester United man, but Greece will be kicking themselves for gifting a goal to the South Koreans which effectively ended their chances in this game.

South Korea looked good value for the win, and I fully expect them to go through to the next round on this showing.

Argentina 1 – 0 Nigeria

This was always destined to be an exciting game, with so much pace and power possessed by both teams, and it didn’t disappoint. The stadium was packed to the rafters for this one, and the African fans were blowing their vuvuzelas with real gusto. It’s great to see the African fans getting behind their continent’s teams – it really makes for a great atmosphere.

Argentina started the game in dominant fashion, spraying the passes about and attacking Nigeria from all areas of the pitch. Argentina’s goal came in the sixth minute from a corner. As Veron swung the ball into the area, Heinze easily left his marker behind and met the ball with a powerful header into the top corner. It was a great header, but truly abysmal defending by the Nigerians.

With all of Argentina’s dominance, it looked like that early goal was going to open the floodgates. However, more goals weren’t to materialise. Argentina, and Messi in particular, managed to carve out many more chances, but they were either foiled by the excellent Nigerian ‘keeper Enyeama, or spurned by the Argentines. Higuain was guilty of missing two guilt-edged chances. It was a big surprise that Argentina didn’t manage to score more, given the hapless nature of the Nigerian defending.

However, for all of Argentina’s dominance, Nigeria could have had a couple of goals themselves. A notable miss came when the Nigerians worked a two-on-one situation with Peter Odemwingie storming down the left wing, only to miss an obvious pass he should have made to the onrushing Obafemi Martins in the box. Odemwingie inexplicably starting whinging at Martins after the opportunity was gone when it was clearly his error that let the chance slip away. A better team would have punished Argentina.

Argentina looked almost as bad in defence as they were good in attack. Gutierrez of Newcastle in particular had a very poor game. Messi provided a commanding performance, skipping through countless challenges and almost scoring on numerous occasions. With him in their team, Argentina will be confident of scoring against any opponent. However, the other top teams in South Africa will be pleased to note their defensive frailties.