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In the 1950 World Cup, USA beat England 1-0 in what is generally considered one of the greatest upsets in football history; England having recently beaten a Rest of Europe 6-1 in an exhibition match. Apparently the England goalkeeper, Bert Williams, has recurring nightmares of conceding the goal and he is 90 years old. Ironically, the coach of England’s world cup winning side in 1966, the late Sir Alf Ramsey, also played for England that day. Sixty years later, England and USA face each other in the opening group fixture of the 2010 World Cup.

 Contrary to some misgivings from American sports writers, this is far from a David and Goliath event. Yes, England are ranked 8^th in the FIFA world rankings, but USA are not too shabby lining up at 14^th in the rankings. USA has appeared in the last 5 World Cups, reaching the quarter-finals in 2002. England lost in the semi-finals in 1990 which was intended to herald a new dawn for English football, but inexplicably failed to qualify for the tournament held in the USA in 1994.

 Now that we have got the history lesson out of our system, let’s take a look at the two teams for Saturday’s fixture. Dare I say it, but USA reminds me of a poor man’s Germany; methodical, well organized but generally boring to watch. The Achilles heel for the Americans is their inability to score sufficient goals against quality teams. The main striker, Altidore, is a twenty year old kid who plays in the Spanish League for Villarreal. He has 9 goals from 25 appearances. Their top player is undoubtedly, Landon Donovan, an attacking midfielder with 42 goals from 123 appearances for his country. One goal every 3 appearances is not a bad return until you take into account the opposition. USA qualified for this year’s World Cup from a group that included Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago; not exactly the power houses in the football world.

 Inevitably England always arrives at the World Cup (when they qualify) with great expectations, but invariably saddled with the weight of the whole nation on their shoulders. The injury jinx has struck once again and England lost its captain, Rio Ferdinand, to a seemingly innocuous injury in training. There are other niggling issues which concern me about this team. England comfortably qualified for this tournament, but their Italian coach, Capello, has not made a decision on who is the number one goalkeeper. This may sound a little trivial, but great teams build from the back. George Cohen, who played in England’s world cup winning side, claimed the other day that their goalkeeper and  back four played together for nine months prior to the 1966 World Cup.

 Capello has never solved the conundrum of successfully accommodating Steve Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the same line up. They are both great attacking midfielders who play a very similar style. How does the old saying go: opposite poles attract and like poles repel? The great Real Madrid club team in the 1950s and early 60s had a similar problem with the French artisan Raymond Kopa and the mercurial Alfredo DeStefano. They were both proven playmakers intent on pulling the strings. Regrettably, there was only room for one captain on the bridge and DeStefano won the battle with Kopa unceremoniously dumped over the side.

 England has not been very convincing in their warm-up matches, and players were complaining about the new match ball having the quality of one picked off a shelf at Wal-Mart. Some of the squad has expressed reservations on playing at altitude in South Africa and apparently are experiencing difficulties adjusting to the conditions. Hello! Did they not know that the World Cup was being staged in South Africa four or five years ago and they had ample time to acclimatize to the unusual conditions?

 I also believe that Capello has tinkered with the formation too often. Mindful of the fact that Gerrard and Lampard will attempt to play together, I would select the following team in a 4-5-1 formation to play USA on Saturday: Hart; Johnson, Terry, King, Ashley Cole; Lennon, Lampard, Carrick, Gerrard, Joe Cole; Rooney.

 Joe Hart would provide a big presence between the sticks, Glen Johnson has defensive limitations at this level which can be compensated in this formation, and I have reservations with my central defensive partnership. Terry is too slow to catch a cold and Ledley’s dodgy knees could let him down over the long haul. Rooney is the key to the success of the team providing he doesn’t receive a red card for foul mouthing the referees. He is very effective as the lone striker which enables him to inflict maximum damage further up the field. Nevertheless, it is imperative that Gerrard and Lampard motor forward to support him. Lennon provides width, speed and acceleration to get round the back of most defenses and Joe Cole provides guile and quickness of feet on the left. Carrick is not my favorite player but can provide the holding role to make this system work.

 Unfortunately, Capello will not select this team or formation as he tends to err on the side of caution. Consequently, both teams will be content with a draw to kick off the tournament and 1-1 appears to be a common score in World Cups. Let battle commence.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 4:04 pm and is filed under Association football, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.