Firstly I think far too many people have underestimated just how good the USA are. They are the only team to beat Spain in the last 40 odd games and gave Brazil a hell of a scare in the Confederations Cup final. They don't have any superstars but are a good team.



Feel sorry for Green, he's made a once in a career mistake in the biggest game of his life. He has to be commended though for they way he dealt with it and came back with a stunning save from Altidore. Had he been done on the near post his England career would have been over.



I thought we did ok, with Glen Johnson outstanding. Heskey did well, superb assist for the goal and linked up play well throughout. If only he could finish.



Lampard had a shocker, constantly giving the ball away and going missing for long periods.

Average at best today.



Midfield was very poor and I think the sooner Barry gets back the better as we were left vulnerable quite a few times and when you have possibly the slowest man in SA at centre back teams are going to cause problems. Thought Heskey did well but the front two lacked any real service for most of the game.



The result isn't as bad as people are making out, USA are a well drilled side and we can only build from here it cant get much worse.



Against Algeria I'd go,



Green

Johnson Dawson Terry A Cole

Lennon Barry Lampard J Cole

Gerrard

Rooney

Why people are calling that such a great save is beyond me, no keeper should be beaten there, the save only looked good because he was badly positioned in the first place and had to throw an arm out.

Again I agree. Looked to me like he was out of position and the shot went through him again. Got lucky it hit the post.

IMO it would have been a good save if he dealt with the shot with strength and put it out for a corner. The fact he met it weakly, on his near post, and only managed to put it against the woodwork just means he got lucky by not giving them two goals.

All this crap about Hart being too young. The bloke is quality and the future! Get him in!

Yep. At the moment I think all our keepers are pretty equal. Hart has the advantage of youth. So for me I'd give him the nod over the other 2. If he doesn't start during the WC he should have it for the qualifiers.

Correct, he should have put it out for a corner, or even kept hold of it, not put it on to the post.

From what has been said it seems Hart was set to get the nod before the practice game on Monday, but his poor distribution in that game cost him, I think he has definitely been the form keeper this season, but distribution is important at international level so I can see why Capello was bothered by that, I haven't seen enough of Hart to judge his distribution normally.



If he's fit I'd have David James starting for the rest of the World Cup and, as suggested, then install Hart as number 1 going forward from the Euro qualifiers.

And then dribbled upfield and scored?

Couldn't agree more....the man played like a woofter.

He let us down big time....and I will guarantee, barring injuries, he will not play another game in this world cup. Which might not be many anyway the way we played tonight.

Let's not kid ourselves USA were poor and we were just better than poor.

But still we contrived to not win.

Apparently Steven Gerrard told South African TV that "the ball is tricky" so you couldn't blame the keeper.



Even more odd is the Sky Sports reporter who seems to think that Green made the error because Capello didn't tell him he'd be playing a few days ago.

Thought Milner and Green were poor but John Terry and Gerrard looked good.

Lampard was quiet and some of his passes were awful. We can only get better

The bollox they come out with to excuse the bollox the keeper made is beyond belief.

And the very fact that Green came on and said it was just one of those things confirms the man is an idiot and should never play for England again.

Any sane person would have said ...'I made a howler and I will learn from it, such that I won't ever do that again'.

But no!

We played well. Not brilliant, but we deserved to win. We were quite rusty in a few areas, but these tournaments are about getting better and peaking in the latter stages. England created alot more play than USA who only really threatened once when they hit the post. The goal was from nothing.



I've only read a few comments on here but people are ridiculously negative. If you look at the facts of the game USA had one clear chance, england created many openings but the final ball or finish was lacking. We dominated most of the game. USA are no mugs, they got the CC final and were 2-0 up against brazil.



I had to laugh at the comment about watching argentina and how we have no chance. Total rubbish. Theres more than one way to win a football game. People on here seem to be of the opinion that the only way is beautiful passing moves. Inter Milan showed us how we can do it in the champions league.



All in all reading the comments on here makes me ashamed to be english.

What do you expect him to say?



I mean seriously?



Even if he's thinking it he can't say it's green's fault.

Watching that sh/te makes me ashamed to be English.

Get it right you optimistic idiot.

Well wouldn't it be refreshing if he (or someone) did?

He could quite easily have said that it was "one of those things", or even answer it the way Capello did, "everyone makes mistakes, he did well 2nd half" etc etc.



Trying to put the blame onto the ball, which clearly had nothing to do with it, is just patronising Green rather than defending him.

yeah, and we controlled most of that game.



People on here are f*cking deluded and need to get a grip on reality. This is international football, at a world cup. Unless england win easily people say it's ''unconvincing'' (a popular one with the press), poor, ''average at best''. England were good today and had it not been for a bad error from green would have got off to a good start.

It would be refresing but it would destroy team morale.

Excuse me...who is putting the blame on the ball?

Have I missed something?

Then you will never be satisfied because you have unrealistic expectation of performance at international level.



People like you make me ashamed to be english. Always criticising. Get behind the team you miserable kunt.

I thought England played fairly well. The result was disapointing but it was only a freak error that got USA the goal. Has Green collected that I feel we would have gone on to win. I always favoured James ahead of the other two, just due to experience really. Carragher looked really slow and I still don't understand why he is there. Johnson played well as did Gerrard and Heskey. We hit the ball too long in the first half and it meant Rooney was not in the game but second half he got on the ball more and we looked much more dangerous. Lennon also had his moments but SWP, why is he there?



There will be mass hysteria at us not winning but it's a decent point and two wins should set us up nicely for the knockout stages.



I fancy Barry will come in and Gerrard wil be pushed to the left like in qualifying, hopefully with Cole getting forward more to offer some width as he was a bit quiet tonight.

I didn't expect us to win comfortably. I expected to win by the odd goal in 3. What disappointed me was the performance. I didn't see the sort of football I would associate with a succesful International team. We gave the ball away cheaply and looked pedestrian at the back. Up front our star player barely got a look in and our workhorse once again showed his finishing is horrendous. If we are to challenge we need to improve tenfold.