The Only Living boy in New York

England 1 USA 1

Despite what ITV analyst Andy Townsend says, this was not a good performance and only a few of England's 'stars' shone. Here is my view:

Robert Green: you have to blame him for the goal. He did nothing else wrong, but gave away the kind of howler that finished Paul Robinson's career. England have a goalkeeper problem. 4
Ashley Cole: only really looked at ease going forward, but a solid enough display from the best left back in the world. 6
Glen Johnson: put aside his indifferent recent performances with a solid game; looked more with it than Lennon, who was supposed to overlap. 6
John Terry: did little wrong. 6
Ledley King: was in the right place, looked confident, suffered a groin tear. 6
Steven Gerard: arguably England's best player, fought for a lot, looked up for it, wasn't supported and dropped too deep. 7
Frank Lampard: pretty much did nothing to prove he works with Gerard; looked slightly off the pace. 5
Aaron Lennon: a poor game; should have scored early on; looked frightened to attack players. 5
James Milner: rightly substituted early on because he was going to get sent off - looked like Rooney on a bad day. 4
Wayne Rooney: ran around a lot, would have made Kevin Keegan proud. Looked jaded and out of form. 5
Emile Heskey: until he ran out of steam he was pretty much our most effective player; should have scored, could have put it anywhere and scored, kicked it straight at Tim Howard. 7
Shaun Wright-Phillips: was better than Milner; is possibly a little bit out of his class mentally; ran into a lot of dead ends and the ball doesn't stick to his feet. 6
Jamie Carragher: rightly booked, shouldn't be there, apparently retired. Mercenary freeloader. 5
Peter Crouch: would have troubled them more if he'd come on earlier. 6

All in all, England, despite good conditions, no heat and having pound for pound the better team, looked content for a draw with 20 minutes to go. Winners have had poor starts before, but this was not that impressive and while the USA are not a bad side, they are a side we really should beat and quite comfortably.

Oh and ITV's HD coverage: they managed to switch to an advert as the throw in that led to England scoring was being taken; they lost the HD feed about 30 minutes into the match for about 10 minutes. If they are not supplying their own pictures they need to ask the director to focus more on the actual game rather than 15 replays of a poor effort that went wide or some fans looking bored. 3

This could be a long two weeks...