Source: Daily_Mail
MARTIN SAMUEL: Cold logic dictates that Capello must stick with Robert Green
The last thing Fabio Capello should do is drop Robert Green for the match with Algeria on Friday. The first thing? Well, he has missed the boat on that one already. [LNB]In the immediate aftermath of England's 1-1 draw with the United States and Green's calamitous error for Clint Dempsey's equalising goal, Capello was asked about his goalkeeping selection for the next game and declined to answer. [LNB]He was not critical of Green but his lack of endorsement said it all. Capello has never had strong belief in England's goalkeepers, that much is plain. If he was a mere observer of England at the World Cup, this would be fine. England's goalkeepers are a mediocre bunch and everybody says it.[LNB] Careless hands: But Robert Green should still hang on to his England place after his howler against the United States[LNB]Capello's voice is different, though, because it is the only one that matters to the man who holds England's World Cup future in his hands. He needs to hear conviction, he needs to hear confidence, he needs to hear, indisputably, that his manager thinks he is the man for this job. [LNB]And until early Saturday evening, roughly two hours prior to kick-off and just before the England team left on its short journey to the Royal Bafokeng stadium, Green had heard nothing. [LNB]This does not excuse his mistake, but it means he is not alone in making one. Capello had to call his World Cup goalkeeper earlier than that. He had to give his choice his backing and every opportunity to prepare mentally days, probably weeks, in advance. [LNB]It is said Green never looks settled. How can he? He has never been afforded that luxury. [LNB]The word from inside the England camp is that Joe Hart has been the best performer in training. Capello thinks he has been the form goalkeeper of the Premier League season, too. It was the dilemma of whether to throw in a 23-year-old for his full international debut in the first match of England's World Cup campaign that is said to have caused Capello's delay in naming Green.[LNB] More from Martin Samuel... Martin Samuel: You are meant to give us a twist not go round it, Fabio13/06/10 Martin Samuel: There is no need to hide, England...this is your moment!11/06/10 MARTIN SAMUEL: Sorry, but you can't prescribe a nurse like Helen10/06/10 Martin Samuel: It's about the sublime joy of watching genius on a pitch10/06/10 MARTIN SAMUEL: Get on the sunny side of the street...we CAN win08/06/10 MARTIN SAMUEL: It would be almost cruel to make Gerrard stay at Liverpool06/06/10 MARTIN SAMUEL: Sick games betray a grim reality03/06/10 MARTIN SAMUEL: If Liverpool get this wrong, they are heading for oblivion03/06/10 VIEW FULL ARCHIVE It is too late to change goalkeepers now, though, and not for sentimental reasons, either. If the fitness of David James is a continued worry, cold, hard logic dictates it must be Green, not Hart, on Friday. [LNB]This was Green's first significant mistake as England goalkeeper. It was a huge one, yes, but every goalkeeper makes them. And they cost games, and points; that is the nature of the job. [LNB]What message does it then send to Hart, in his first competitive start for England, if the strategy applied to the goalkeeper's position is that of one strike and you're out?[LNB]Algeria or not, Hart would quite understandably be a nervous wreck. He would fear making two England appearances in one game: his first and, if all does not go well, his last. [LNB]And were he to make a mistake, where would Capello go from there? If Green is ditched for one error in 10 games and five competitive starts, there would be no consistency in sticking with Hart in similar, if not worse, circumstances. [LNB]Of course, Capello does not have to maintain the precedent of dropping the goalkeeper on the first occasion of frailty, but what would Hart's demeanour then be in what could be a winner-takes-all game against Slovenia in Port Elizabeth? [LNB]It would be mental torture. We cannot have so much pressure on one man.[LNB]Say Capello picks Hart and the worst happens. He could not then return to Green, having deserted him after one match and the remaining alternative would be to recall James and use three goalkeepers in three games. It would make England, and their manager, the laughing stock of the tournament and vulnerable beyond belief. [LNB]Many think English football is paying the price for the biggest clubs ignoring English goalkeepers, but this is untrue. [LNB]Arsenal bought Richard Wright from Ipswich Town, but he was not good enough. Manchester United were working with Ben Foster before selling him to Birmingham City. Liverpool paid £750,000 for Scott Carson but when he was put up for sale three years later, he could do no better than West Bromwich Albion. [LNB]Standing guard: Joe Hart[LNB]Chris Kirkland's time at Anfield predated the arrival of Rafael Benitez, but he was not of the standard required and moved on to Wigan. Paul Robinson lost his way with England, and with Tottenham Hotspur, and was demoted to Blackburn Rovers. It is not that the elite clubs do not afford opportunity to English goalkeepers, more that a manager of a club in contention for the Champions League cannot indulge imperfection for long. [LNB]A top class side needs a top class goalkeeper. All the major clubs have tried to find one in England, but the cupboard is bare. [LNB]In comparison to Green, the performance of Tim Howard of the United States has been lionised, but he is fallible, too. Howard was brought to English football to play for Manchester United and the fact he is now at Everton suggests a talent that is superior but not superlative, much like so many of his English counterparts. [LNB]Even so, Howard's take on Green's World Cup future is worth hearing. [LNB]The loyalty of the goalkeeping fraternity invariably guarantees support in times of crisis, but something in Howard's words after the game suggested a deeper empathy with the plight of one who is more Bonetti than Banks. [LNB]'That mistake? It is what it is,' he said. 'How do you get through it? I don't know, alcohol? There's nothing that will dull that pain right now, man, nothing. All that takes it away is putting in a string of really good performances over time. [LNB]'It's hard man, it sucks. He's got broad shoulders, though. He's a good goalkeeper. He made a couple of saves after that to keep them in it. I don't know what Capello will do but I've had the good fortune to play for David Moyes at Everton and, trust me, there's been a few times when I thought he shouldn't have played me. He stuck by me and that gave me a boat-load of confidence.' [LNB]It is a feeling that will be entirely foreign to England's No 1 this morning, if the England coach had even afforded him that small, numerical gesture of support, so important to goalkeepers; which, of course, he did not.[LNB] Fans left stranded on road to hellHorror stories abound about the return from the Royal Bafokeng stadium on Saturday. Traffic around the ground was gridlocked. Some took four hours just to reach the park-and-ride facility. Others saw serious accidents, one horrendous, on the road to Johannesburg. [LNB]These vanity projects at major tournaments must stop. Platinum dollars made Rustenburg a World Cup venue, so finance was not an issue. As the proposed new home of the local football team, the Platinum All-Stars, there will be some form of legacy, too. [LNB]So far so good, but there should be a third consideration, that of the long suffering supporters. [LNB]From this perspective, Rustenburg was a bust. The greatest scandal of modern sports events is the way, at the first sniff of money, organisers are prepared to leave thousands of fans stranded, or abandon them to the most hellish journeys without thought of consequence. The 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul was a particularly memorable example. [LNB]Journalists achingly desperate to proclaim the first African World Cup a triumph will report from business trips costing in the region of £30,000 plus expenses, some travel with full-time security and medical staff. [LNB]Faced with a venue in the middle of nowhere they can throw somebody else's money at the problem and shout 'taxi'. How you lot get home sometimes, I will never know.[LNB] AND WHILE WE'RE AT IT...Well, they kept that quiet. On Thursday, while the eyes of the world were focused on South Africa, FIFA quietly announced that the 6 + 5 ruling on quotas of home-grown players was to be scrapped. [LNB]The European Union does not allow the make-up of a workforce to be governed by nationality and contrary to the presumption of Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, football is not a special case. It never was. [LNB]Blatter (above right) has been feted like an emperor for so long he thought his will could over-ride established international labour laws. The great shame is being denied the sight of his face when it was patiently explained he was not leader of the free world or the United Nations, but just a Swiss lawyer in charge of the football.[LNB] Benni a mug to miss the partyWatching South Africa's football team, the joyously-named Bafana Bafana, nod, bob, sing and dance their way off the team bus at Soccer City in Soweto on Friday, one thought was inescapable. Benni McCarthy: what an idiot. [LNB]Imagine not wanting to be part of this. Imagine not caring enough, not making the effort to be at the centre of an event that is being twinned with the release of Nelson Mandela in the way it has united and ignited a nation. Hyperbole? I thought so, too, but when Danny Jordaan, a member of the African National Congress and contemporary of murdered activist Steve Biko, drew this comparison on the eve of the tournament, it made some of the recent excesses of the printed word almost palatable. [LNB]'We waited 27 years for Mandela's release,' said Jordaan. 'For the vote we waited from 1948. But FIFA formed in 1904, so it has been the longest wait for Africa's World Cup. And we did not wait alone. Africa waited with us. This World Cup has broken down the barriers of where people live, where they play, where they eat and drink, where they celebrate.' [LNB] What South African would turn his back on that? McCarthy, apparently. He reported for duty significantly out of condition and there are further suggestions of indiscipline at the team hotel that infuriated Carlos Parreira, the coach. [LNB]In short, he blew it. McCarthy (above) let his country down - they certainly missed a decisive goalscorer against Mexico - and surely, in years to come, he will regret the indulgence that placed him outside one of the greatest moments, sporting or otherwise, in the history of his country. [LNB]On a more mundane level, his club should also be very worried. For if McCarthy did not have the motivation to get ready for this, what chance is there of him giving two hoots for West Ham United in the Premier League next season?[LNB] A true highlight of the World Cup was Thursday night's opening concert. Forget the western headline acts, Mali stole the show. Go on YouTube and check out the performances of Tinariwen and Amadou et Mariam. Wonderful. [LNB]There was talk of celebrity mime act Cheryl Cole (right) performing, but it was claimed she was concerned about running into estranged husband Ashley. [LNB]As he was some 75 miles north of Soweto at the time, tucked up inside England's training camp at Phokeng, this would have been a chance meeting to rival die-hard New Yorkers Carrie and Aidan both pitching up in Abu Dhabi in Sex And The City 2. [LNB]It has led some to speculate there may have been another reason Cheryl did not fancy going head to head with the likes of Alicia Keys and John Legend. Now, whatever can it be? [LNB]Even so, arguably the world's best left-back is also keeping the stage free for good music. That Ashley Cole, he really is a national treasure.[LNB] It is a shame football does not work like finance because if ever a country looked like it could do with borrowing some players quick, it is Greece. [LNB] [LNB]
