Murphy's Law

We dreamt of a flawless, vibrant, intelligent performance. We hoped to lay down a marker so we could get up in the faces of the favourites and say "we are England and we are here to take your cup." But we didn't. Instead we found ourselves on the wrong side of Murphy's Law.

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Robert Green's ghastly error changed the nature of the match and made the headlines, but he wasn't the only problem on a night when all our chickens came home to roost.

We shouldn't get carried away though. It's not the end of the world (cup)and I'm sure we would have won if it hadn't been for Green's nightmare.

I didn't think the USA were causing many problems until that moment and I thought we were the better of two average teams who were both struggling to keep possession.

And then it happened. It's stating the obvious to say that it changed the game. But sometimes these things do fundamentally alter a game and sometimes they just send it down a wrong turn for half an hour.

This particular mistake changed everything. It energised the Americans and wasted what little confidence and rhythm we'd built up. By the end, we were grateful for the draw.

Now we're left to ponder all the same old concerns again.

We all worried about who would be in goal and with good reason as it turned out. For me, Green should go. A World Cup is not like a league season, where a player has time to play himself back into form. Its do or die, now or never and someone else should go in goal. Personally I would have picked Joe Hart for Saturday's game, but under these circumstances, the more experienced David James is perhaps the right man to take over now.

The centre of defence was already a concern after Rio Ferdinand's injury but we all talked ourselves into believing that Ledley King's fitness would hold up and that he would be an admirable replacement. That lasted precisely 45 minutes. To make matters worse, his replacement, the admirable Jamie Carragher, had a nightmare, especially against anyone with any sort of pace. So another new face is likely v Algeria. Probably Matty Upson.

The midfield was always going to throw up more questions than answers, due to the absence of Gareth Barry in the anchor role. But what we got was a real mess. Lennon wasn't as good as I hoped. Lampard was anonymous. Milner wasn't fit and I can't for the life of me fathom why it was scattergun Shaun Wright-Phillips and not the more intelligent Joe Cole who was summoned from the bench. Gerrard was good though, which was one of the few plus points. He took that goal really well.

Heskey was a plus and a minus. In one sense he did exactly what he was there to do, which was to be a pivot point for the attack. Sadly he also didn't do what he was there to do. He just doesn't score and it wasn't at all surprising that he blew his big chance in the second half. More importantly, the whole 90 minutes offered yet more ammunition to the TV pundits' theory that England need to play one up front in order to retain possession better. That one being Rooney, who was a bit off colour on Saturday. But please god there's more to come from him.

Worst of all, my previously unshakable faith in Capello was shaken a little, because he didn't have a good night either. He can't be held responsible for King's fitness and he isn't responsible for his goalie throwing one in. But he never got the midfield to work and he backed the wrong horses with his choice of keeper and with his substitutions.

On Sunday, Algeria and Slovenia proved there really is nothing to fear in this group, but the pressure has now been ratcheted up a notch. Especially in terms of topping the group and avoiding a likely second round date with the Germans.

Not a great start then, but not a total disaster either. We fell victim to Murphy's Law on Saturday, but we didn't lose and we really should still top this group. So we can still win the World Cup. But we still probably won't.