It's Not Easy Being Green

Poor old Rob Green. One minute he's thinking to himself what a comfortable first half of World Cup football he's had and the next he's picking the ball out of his net following an absolute howler on his World Cup debut.

Undoubtedly, the media shall swoop upon that mistake like the vultures the can be to make Green the scapegoat but, for me, he cannot take all of the blame for England dropping two points. There were numerous others who failed to turn up and deliver like Frank Lampard, who was uncharacteristically quiet in midfield and James Milner, who looked under the weather following an illness in midweek before being substituted after half an hour.

It could be argued that it's good that all high-profile mistakes are done now when England have two matches left to win to qualify from Group C as opposed to in a semi-final or final but, obviously, it would be better to have a faultless World Cup. Unfortunately, it is the end of a bad week for Fabio Capello who lost his captain, had a run-in with the media and has now had numerous team selections backfire (Ledley King, James Milner and, of course, Green).

Some fans are calling for Green to be dropped next game and you can see their point, however, it is a typical tendency of the England fans to over-react to something like this. The media will make things bad enough for Green without fans of his own team putting more pressure onto him.

Although he made amends with a routine save that was inevitably hyped up by everyone, Green was lucky that didn't go in either as it wasn't the strongest of hands he got to the ball. Whilst the mistake is inexcusable, it should not mean that he misses out against Algeria. Granted, it was a shocking error, but it will not do the defence an favours if the goalkeeper is being changed each game. Capello has chosen Green as his number one and, for that reason, he should stick with him and give him all of the support he needs along with Goalkeeping Coach Ray Clemence.

There are, as mentioned previously, two games left for England - both of which they should win - to qualify from the group stages comfortably so all is not lost. Green's confidence will take some rebuilding and slating him isn't exactly going to help now, is it?