SOCCER / WORLD CUP 2010:IT WAS close on midnight in the Royal Bafokeng Stadium and Fabio Capello was subjected for the first time to the suffocating pressures of England's World Cup anxieties.
The dapper Italian stood in a marquee on the edge of the stadium while, just outside, the jubilant shouts of American fans filled the still night. His smile was tight as he responded to a brisk interrogation from his erstwhile champions on Fleet Street.
The tenor of the questions was straight and it was reasonable: is it acceptable a team of England’s calibre should fail to beat the USA?
“We play a good game and for me the important thing was to see the spirit of the team,” Capello said in his calm, halting English.
“I think it is okay. We create good chances, but this is the football. I think this was a difficult team to play against because they ran a lot. To win you have to score.
“Is not enough to create the chance to score goal. Some time the ’keeper save your goal and the other ’keeper makes a mistake. That is the football. We have seven chances to score a goal, they shot once at the ’keeper and we have one mistake.”
The mistake. Poor Robert Green has created a small moment of World Cup infamy for himself. When Bert Williams kept goal for England in the “miracle match” of 1950, he at least had the deflected header of Joe Gaetjens to send him moving the wrong way to prevent the ball spinning into the England net for the most stunning defeat in their history.
But Green’s mistake was crushing and irrevocable.
The dusty road out of Rustenberg contained several lost Englishmen last night, waving St George flags as they were briefly caught in the headlights, and motorists must have been tempted to scan the dark road for a green number one jersey traipsing disconsolately home.
Capello refused to reveal whether he would keep his faith in Green but shook his head when asked if he regretted selecting the team he did.
“No. Absolutely not. Because when I decided Green would be the ’keeper he played the last game very well and in Wembley the performance was good. He made one mistake, but the second half he made also a good save . . . We have time to decide. We have time to speak with him and then decide.”
But it was a night that raised old questions about England. For long periods, their fans sat waiting for something – for anything – to happen on the field while the Americans, bright and industrious and playing through their limitations, went about their business.
“I am not happy because the result is not good, but I am happy because I saw finally the spirit of England, the spirit of the team because we fight every time we are required to win back the ball,” Capello insisted.
His audience was silent. For it is not the English spirit that will be the enduring image of this match but Green’s outrageous mistake.
Remembered, too, will be Capello’s reaction, when he turned away, horrified. These blunders were supposed to be consigned to the dustbin of history – to the England of Keegan, Taylor, or McClaren. Now, it seems even the Italian may discover these gigantic lapses, these unforgiving nights when England conspire to defeat themselves, are somehow part of the English condition.
A draw is no disaster but questions hang over England now.
On this night, Capello was afforded the luxury of sanguinity.
“We have to accept the mistake of the ’keeper, accept the mistake of the referee, of the forwards. This is the football! The important thing is the score!”
And that read England 1 USA 1.
There may be trouble ahead.
The Americans are revolting – and revelling in Brit-bashing
NEW YORK'S Daily Newswent with "Gift goal gives US underdogs stunning tie versus England". The Augusta Chroniclesettled on: "Americans celebrate 1-1 draw".
The front page themes across the US were all similar – the draw with England was to be celebrated, though Alabama's Birmingham Newsthought they had beaten more than just England, with yesterday's front page proclaiming: "US leaves UK fit to be tied".
None, though, went so far as the New York Post, who underneath their headline of "USA wins 1-1", went on to claim the game to be the "greatest tie against the British since Bunker Hill" (for those rusty on their American history, that refers to a 1775 battle near Boston which the British won, but suffered so many casualties the Americans were able to claim it as, well, a score draw).
Eager not to exaggerate the significance of the result any further, the Postled their inside coverage with: "It was the second shot heard around the world." And continued: "In true revolutionary style, the underdog Americans came from behind and blasted the powerful Brits to a nail-biting 1-1 draw in one of the all-time great World Cup soccer battles".
The newspaper – which captioned a picture of an England fan looking glum in a New York pub with: “TAKE THIS, YOB, AND SHOVE IT!” – had a reporter in a Manhattan pub. Among others, he talked to 38-year-old New York banker Leonard Stello, who explained: “I wanted us to kick their butt. I had an ex-girlfriend there, and I have nothing good to say about England.”
– DAMIAN CULLEN
