USA v England - an opportunity missed?

Day 3 has come to a close with the Germans clobbering the Aussies 4-0. Not surprised really, they always seem to clobber someone the first game of the tourney.

I am still reflecting on yesterday's USA - England match. Maybe I'm just looking back through "homer" glasses, but the more I think about it, the more this seems like we missed a golden opportunity to punch England in the mouth and steal all 3 points.

England came out flying and took advantage of poor marking to go up 1-0 after only four minutes. The "superior" team then promptly took their foot off the pedal and set the cruise control. The problem was there were 86 minutes left in the match. The Americans slowly worked their way back into the match and even began to put a bit of pressure on the English defense. England never stepped it back up, didn't get Rooney involved until it was too late and generally failed to take back control of the game.

The goal was a gift of course, but really did we expect any different? Green joins a long line of English keepers who have made major gaffes in big situations, fumbling Clint Dempsey's shot over the line. Clint isn't complaining and his post match comments said it all: "They all count the same once they go in."Jozy Altidore had a glorious chance saved by Green and the post late on, though it can easily argued that England spurned more chances to win the game than the "Yanks" did.

The fact is overall England played poorly relative to there talent. If a team like the USA is going to beat them, it is on a day when they are not at there best. Not to take anything away from the USA performance, certainly not from the way they kept Rooney under wraps for better than 70 minutes. However, this was that opportunity and it wasn't seized. If Dempsey and his teammates had played their best game this would have been three points in the bag and a foot in the second round.

All is not lost of course. A point against the group favorites is never a bad thing and the team still controls its own destiny. Win the next two games and they advance.

And the injury train rolls on...

For once though it is an opponent of the United States sweating it out over a star player. Wayne Rooney turned an ankle in added time of Manchester United's defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champion's League.

Rooney to miss a month

Leaves Munich on crutches

The injury occurred just prior to a superb individual effort by Bayern's Ivica Olic resulted in the go ahead goal as the German team will take a 2-1 lead into the second leg at Old Trafford.

I never want to see players get hurt, but the US chances will only improve if Rooney is less than 100% when they face off against England on June 11th. While Jermaine Defoe, Peter Crouch, and company would all instantly slot into a starting role for the Stars and Stripes, none of them are at Rooney's level. Which, quite frankly has been terrifying me for months as he has been in the form of his life.

Why the Champions League has me worried about June 12, 2010

What a week in the UEFA Champions League with sixteen goals scored in four games, two of which were blow-outs, but two of which were back and forth with the final goal sending first Bayern and then Lyon through to the quarterfinal. This was fun, fun viewing and a great advertisement for the beautiful game.

With apologies to Arsenal's hat-trick hero Nicklas Bendtner, the performance of the week came from United's Wayne Rooney who knocked in two sublime goals to continue his destruction of all comers. His tally now stands at 30 goals in all competitions this season and his manager is pushing him to hit 43 and break Ronaldo's total from a few year's back. A lofty goal, not completely unrealistic though.

The scariest part of course is that, barring injury, Rooney will be leading the attack against the USA on June 12th in the red, white, and blue's opening World Cup match against England. Conventional wisdom says the opening group game is the most important and for the USA to get any points against England they will have to figure out how to shut down the in-form forward who seems to be scoring at will with both foot and head.