Alan Shearer believes Fabio Capello will drop Robert Green after the England goalkeeper’s extraordinary blunder gifted the US an equalizer in the teams’ World Cup opening draw.
England were 1-0 up and seemingly in no danger when Green failed to get his body behind Clint Dempsey’s tame 25m shot and saw the ball squirm from his grasp as the US equalized in Rustenburg on Saturday.
As newspapers in Britain lamented Green’s “Hand of Clod” and “Tainted Glove,” former England captain Shearer said neither the new ball in use at the tournament, nor the fact Italian boss Capello only let players know his team lineup a couple of hours before kickoff could explain Green’s mistake.
Shearer, who expects the more experienced David James to be in goal for Friday’s match against Algeria, told the BBC: “When you are at your first World Cup, like Green is, and you don’t have many caps — he had nine before Saturday — then it can be a very nervy situation.”
“Could not knowing whether he was playing until two hours before kickoff have affected him? Well, it would have made a difference to his preparations, but there was still no excuse for that kind of mistake,” the former Newcastle United striker said. “It will haunt him for the rest of his life, but he cannot do anything about it now and he has to try to move on.”
“However, I still think Fabio Capello will leave him out for England’s next game against Algeria on Friday and for me, that would be the right decision,” he said. “You can imagine what our opponents would be thinking if he does play and Green’s own confidence is likely to be rock bottom too. Who should play instead? I’d assume Capello will go for David James, if fit, because he has the experience.”
Meanwhile, fears Ledley King’s World Cup may have come to a premature end mounted yesterday when England team officials admitted they could not predict when he would be able to return to action.
An England spokesman denied that King, 29, was definitely out of the tournament, but acknowledged that the squad’s medical team were still uncertain of when he would return.
“Ledley has a groin muscle strain. He will be assessed on a day-to-day basis,” the spokesman said.
England’s next opponents Algeria are still learning how to compete at the top level of international soccer and their Group C clash with the European heavyweights on Friday will be another part of that process, Algerian coach Rabah Saadane said.
The 64-year-old — in his fifth spell in charge of the Desert Foxes — admitted his side were very much the underdogs in their group, a fact borne out by their opening 1-0 defeat by Slovenia on Sunday.
“It will be very difficult [to qualify],” said Saadane, whose playing career was ended aged just 27 by a car crash. “We are the minnows in the group ... we will learn things when we play against England, we will see what we are capable of, what is our level, and this is the lesson for the World Cup for Algeria. It is imperative to recuperate from this match and to prepare for an even more difficult match against the best team in the group. I think that, save injuries and tiredness, we will start with the same team, but the tactics will probably change.”
Saadane was disappointed his side had failed to get even a point from a game they would have expected at the very least to draw — though they were not helped by the red card for substitute striker Abdelkader Ghezzal 18 minutes from time — but was pleased with the overall display in Algeria’s first match at the finals since 1986.
“We did not deserve this result, but that is football,” he said. “I congratulate my team, I am very happy with the behavior of the players in this match ... I have said on several occasions and I repeat that it is a body of work that needs time. We are, as it were, in an apprenticeship.”
Saadane, who also coached the Algerians at the 1986 finals, said he did not hold either Ghezzal or goalkeeper Faouzi Chaouchi — who mistimed his dive and saw the ball bobble over him for the goal — responsible for the defeat.
“As regards Ghezzal and Chaouchi, it is part of their growing-up process and that goes back to what I was saying about an apprenticeship. Football is built on errors, we saw that of England goalkeeper Robert Green on Saturday and I will not blame these two players,” he said.
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