With the U.S.' best defender Oguchi Onyewu recovering from a knee injury and a possible for the World Cup, fellow defender Carlos Bocanegra will be an essential part of shutting down England’s Wayne Rooney.
England’s Strengths
As with the U.S., tactics. Capello gets the best out of his best, and as they showed in their outstanding qualification run, they do not get caught on the counter-attack, the press for the ball constantly, and they do not suffer mental lapses.
England’s Weaknesses
Also similar to the U.S., England has not been able to create moments of creative magic when they are needed and they have minor weaknesses in every area which become apparent when playing against the best.
Main Men for England
Wayne Rooney is the modern striker: compact, highly skilled, boundless energy, fighting determination and a finishing touch, the English team is built around feeding Rooney. Watch the punishing, end-to-end runs Rooney will make on the break.
Steven Gerrard has been giving a free role in midfield and has responded with relentless and attacking play.
John Terry had a season of self-created distractions and was shown to be the crude but usually well-placed defender he has always been. With first-pick Rio Ferdinand out with injuries and fellow defender Ashley Cole on the squad but recovering from a long injury-induced lay-off, defensive responsibilities rest on Terry’s shoulders.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - roger nowosielski
Your prediction?
2 - Dr Dreadful
Dunno about Earl, but mine: England to win 2-0.
The US should qualify for the knockout stages along with England, though.
As to further progress, you never really know with either team. When the Americans play above themselves, as they did in the '94 and '02 World Cups and in the Confederations Cup two years ago, they're capable of great things.
England had an exemplary qualifying campaign and are certainly one of the favourites, but they've almost always underachieved in the big tournaments. I'm keeping my expectations cautiously low.
Both England and the US often run aground in similar ways: a tendency to run out of ideas when up against competent opponents, and an apparent expectation that the way to overcome this problem is to pass the ball around aimlessly and hope the other team will oblige by stepping out of the way.
3 - Dr Dreadful
...Kind of like the Celtics last night. :-)
4 - zingzing
while i think the us can win this game, i very much doubt they will. in order to win, we'll need to score at least two goals (which is something we've struggled to do against far lesser opponents at times) and have a fantastic game on defense (which is probably not going to happen).
i think we've proven that on our best days, we can take on the world's best (on their off days). given the right circumstances (as in, having a great day and england coming out flat), we can win.
remember spain. remember...
i'll say a 1-1 tie, just because i'm not going to say england will win.
if we were to beat england and get through to the next round, that would be enough for me. of course, if we beat england, and come out on top of the group, that would be great, because then we'd avoid germany (in all likelihood) and we know england loves germany. beating england would certainly set a good tone.
i say us gets to the second round, and if we don't get germany there (and get... serbia? right?), we might even make it to the quarters again.
5 - STM
The US beat the Poms 1-0 in the 1950 world cup.
Uruguay went on to win it that year, and the US got bundled out in the early stages. But they still beat the Poms.
When 22 blokes are booting a bag of wind up and down a field for 90 minutes in the near-forlorn hope that someone might actually get it between the sticks (which is one of the reasons I'm not a true soccer fan), and even if 11 or more of them are going to be highly-skilled but hugely overpaid bogans with diamond earrings and Bentleys, anything can - and sometimes does - happen.
Witness Australia's game against Italy at the last world cup. Only a milked penalty won Italy the game in the dying stages.
Neverthless, the smart money says a) The US likely won't beat England and b) Germany will give Australia, one of the other so-called "minnows", a flogging in their pool.
But at this level, anything COULD happen.
Which is why it's worth watching, even if you're not a genuine fan of the game.
The Rugby World Cup's better though :)
6 - STM
Poms = England, BTW, if anyone's wondering.
7 - Earl
A lot of experts are predicting England will make it through to the semis if not farther: Grant Wahl, Sid Lowe, Marcotti, J. Wilson, Vickery, Grant Wahl, even Stan Collymore is weighing in with an England pick. Is this more of the usual English over-hype or is Capello the man to take the Golden Era boys to the highest level? Who will stop them?
8 - Dr Dreadful
Grant Wahl is apparently so convinced that England will win it all that he predicted them twice!
9 - Earl
Ah, haha. Indeed, Dr. He's worth reading twice.
10 - Dr Dreadful
And as for Australia, they've been drawn in an excruciatingly difficult group: Germany, Serbia and Ghana will all be formidable opponents. I don't expect them to qualify, but they've got a useful squad with experience in the top European leagues and on their day, as with Team USA, you never know. If they can sneak a win and a draw and other results in the group go their way they might just make it.
I'll be cheering for them, along with England and (except for the first game) the US.
11 - roger nowosielski
#5
I listened to those broadcasts (1950 World Cup). Uruguay's victory was unexpected. It was a lopsided score, too, in the final, five to nothing, if memory serves.
12 - Dr Dreadful
Capello does, as you observed, Earl, seem to have the golden touch. He also doesn't seem susceptible to one significant failing that a lot of past England coaches have had: what I call the "If I Could Pick the England Team I'd..." syndrome. Too often they've tended to pick the team based on star quality, rather than on how well eleven particular players play together.
So we end up with Tom, who's scored 30 goals for Cokehole United this season, at centre forward - the trouble is that he doesn't have a particularly good connection with Dick and Harry on the wings. They interact far more effectively with the reserve striker, Pete... except Pete's on the bench because he's only started 15 games for his club all season.
The other blunder we've seen too much of in the past is the constant tinkering with team selection and formation. The England XI never seems to be the same from one game to the next; we never have a settled line-up; and then we wonder why we don't gel when it comes to the biggest tournament of all. Capello at least seems to have his eye on that goal - although his hands have been tied by injuries to key players - so with luck this England squad might at least recognise one another and not need to be introduced in the dressing room before the match.
13 - Dr Dreadful
(1950 World Cup). Uruguay's victory was unexpected. It was a lopsided score, too, in the final, five to nothing, if memory serves.
Memory doesn't serve, Rog.
You're right about Uruguay's win being an upset: Brazil were expected to stroll it on home soil. But the result of the deciding game was much closer: 2-1 to Uruguay.
Technically it wasn't the final either: the 1950 tournament had a final group of four instead of a knockout stage. But the results just happened to pan out so that the last group game between Uruguay and Brazil would also decide the title.
Brazil led the group by a point going into the match, so they only needed a draw to lift the World Cup whereas Uruguay had to win. Watched in Rio's Maracaná Stadium by a crowd estimated to be 200,000 - still, I believe, a world record for any sporting event - Brazil took the lead just after half time and seemed to be cruising. But Uruguay scored twice in the final 25 minutes and that was that.
14 - roger nowosielski
Well, that was a long time ago. I doubt even Stan was alive back then.
15 - Earl
Does the U.S. stick with the 4-4-2 that brought them or do they switch it to something like a 4-5-1?
16 - Dr Dreadful
I'm confident that they'll qualify from the group with more of the same.
But when they run up against (probably) Germany, Serbia or Ghana in the next phase, they're going to have to adapt if they don't want to have to keep thinking, "I'm sure there was a German/Serbian/Ghanaian with a ball just in front of me a moment ago... Oh, there he is - running towards his teammates with his shirt off."
17 - zingzing
if we still had davies, i'd say go 4-4-2, but without him, i'd say going 4-5-1 and shoring up our stuggling, yet very talented midfield would be a good way to spread the ball around, maintain more possession and get the ball up in dangerous spots. heaven knows we don't want the ball to get near our defense. luckily, we do have supreme talent in goal. but still. keep the ball up and in their net and we can win.
18 - STM
Doc # 16. LOL! Very clever, Doctor
19 - Dr Dreadful
luckily, we do have supreme talent in goal.
You do seem to produce a consistently excellent crop of keepers. Howard is world class and Hahnemann's no slouch either - had a superb season with Wolves.
In the outfield, I'm looking forward to seeing Clint Dempsey. He, too, had an amazing season with Fulham.
BTW, I wonder what happened to Freddy Adu and why he isn't in the squad...
20 - Earl
Strapping, corn-fed bucks with great hand-eye coordination. Sounds like a U.S. product.
Fulham, what a brilliant example of how great coaching can help a team rise.
And yeah, if anyone's had a Freddy-sighting, please do notify.
21 - Dr Dreadful
He's on the books of Benfica, the top Portuguese club, but can't break into the first team so they keep loaning him out. Currently he's with Thessalonika in Greece, I believe.
22 - zingzing
"BTW, I wonder what happened to Freddy Adu and why he isn't in the squad..."
because he hasn't really developed as a player. he's been great for our under-23 team, and he's been alright on the national team, but even his brother maurice has a better chance at the mnt at this point. he just doesn't get playing time over in europe. i think he's made some bad decisions with the clubs he signs with... and i don't know why they're signing him either. he works well in certain situations, but he hasn't gone to clubs where that situation exists, therefore he gets no playing time, therefore he doesn't develop.
still, what is he, 20? 21? since he left club play in the us in 2007, he's played in a total of 32 games and scored 3 goals. things just haven't been going right for him. (yet, in 38 games for the us mens' under 20 and 23, he's got 20 goals.) he's clearly talented, but he just doesn't get the playing time. he should come back to the mls just to get some playing time, methinks. best for him, best for us. he could still yet develop into a great player, as he has the potential.
23 - zingzing
thrilling start, eh? mexico got damn lucky, although they did pull it together at the end and got a bit unlucky, and france... what a mess.
24 - Dr Dreadful
Didn't see the France-Uruguay game. I recorded it, with a view to skimming through the highlights later after reading the match report... but then I read the match report and saw that there were no highlights. So I just deleted it.
The first game was pretty good. Probably the right result. What a terrific goal to open the tournament with!
25 - Earl
Thought S.Africa was vital but shaky in the back. Mexico stayed the course, as did the U.S. commentators who were worse than boring, they were wrong on that offsides. At least Univision has skantly clad women who serve no purpose other than to be skantly clad women. France's midfield wasn't effective and the overall energy was low until the final ten minutes. All in all, a fairly typical opening day of WC footie that was overshadowed by a great vibe coming from the beautiful people of a very deserving country. Now, I hope, we can get down to some real football.