England 1-1 USA
Well well well. I suppose that this result was no surprise. However it should have been a comfortable victory for England. But for Robert Green's terrible / unfortunate / foolish / basic / schoolboy (delete as applicable) mistake; Emile Heskey's lame miss (though he was excellent otherwise) and some good keeping by Howard it would have been. But then again perhaps only Green's save from Altidore prevented the US from nicking it.
Captain Steven Gerrard gave England the lead on 4 minutes after a great through ball from Emile Heskey. His finish was coolness personified - was Heskey watching? As the first half progressed though, you always felt that a second goal was needed and so it proved on 40 minutes when after having had a couple of sighters Clint Dempsey launched a shot of such ferocity that Green was barely able to hold on to as it nestled in the back of the net. Well OK, Dempsey did launch a shot but it was speculative rather than ferocious but the rest of my description is pretty accurate.
England pressed in the second half and did show some urgency, but lady luck or poor finishing coupled with a good night for Everton's Tim Howard (plus Green's finger tips and the post) saw the score remain 1-1. ITV managed to wind me up something rotten (again) last night. Patrick Viera must have wondered what he had done in a former life to end up sandwiched between the VIth Form hockey captain and the balloon that looked remarkable like Kevin Keegan (highlight, England to win 4-1). ITV's best feature is Ned Boulting's embedment in Soweto. He is getting the chance to see how some of South Africa's real people enjoy the game of football. The only shame about it is that they only seem to allow it 2 minute chunks before ad breaks. And once again, Adrian Chiles proved that pride really does come before a fall.
