The 'nana bunch

"honest, guv, I had me 'ands on it, but it was the ball's fault!"

I didn't see this coming. I didn't think the game was a foregone conclusion, but I called it in my blog. The US and England had never drawn a match before, guess it should have been obvious what the result would be.

England had a great start, scoring in the 3rd minute, but from then on we really didn't seem to connect with any of our chances and from all the pressure we piled on the Yanks we should have made Tim Howard work more in goal (especially after Emile Heskey clattered him in the first half... ).

I don't think the Americans were expecting that they'd score in quite that fashion, the ball squirting through the keeper's hands and rolling agonisingly over the line from a tame shot 25 yards out. I wonder what team Rob Green plays for...?

You know England have had a poor game when Heskey performs much better than Wayne Rooney. Nothing much from him all game, except to show how the Emile Heskey role should be played. Couple of flashes in the last quarter of the game, but then he wound down again. Nice snapshot, but again failed to test Howard.

A draw does neither team any harm, but the manner in which it came about may give more heart to USA than to the English. A rather muted draw in the end and leaves the group kind of open. I was hoping to have the last game as a dead rubber, but now a win in the second is crucial, and even then we still might not be certain of qualifying... Edgy, but I don't like edgy in a World Cup

Many good campaigns start slowly though. Roll on Algeria!