Like Green, Capello can’t afford another fumble

ONLY two teams, Uruguay in 1950 and West Germany in 1954, have won the World Cup using two goalkeepers during the tournament so England manager Fabio Capello faces a real conundrum today as he contemplates what to do with Robert Green following his lamentable error against the United States.

Green has been described as a clown by some British news-papers after his ‘hand of clod’ fumbled a tepid shot from Clint Dempsey into his own net to deny England victory in their opening game.

It’s not just a matter of whether Green’s fragile confidence can survive the blow but also whether England have the talent to replace him because a quick glance at the alternatives hardly fills supporters with confidence; David James is experienced but also has an affinity with calamity while Joe Hart is hugely promising but raw.

Capello, normally so ruthless and decisive, found the lack of goalkeeping quality such a headache that more than two years into his reign as England manager he went to the World Cup without revealing his first choice and only told Green, who must have thought he had missed out when James was named number one in the squad list, two hours before kick-off that he had been selected.

Arguments are already raging over Capello’s handling of the situation but the real test now is how he proposes to resolve it before England’s next match against Algeria in Cape Town.

Yesterday Capello’s verdict on Green’s future was typically evasive and confusing, consistent with the whole goalkeeping debate so far.

“No, yes,” he said. “We have to wait. I know. We think about this problem psychologically.”

Dropping Green could potentially destroy a player whose confidence is already low, but sticking by him may have even more desperate consequences if nerves get the better of the West Ham keeper in the Green Point Stadium.

Capello is likely to assess Green’s mood in training before making such a huge decision but precedent is not in the former Norwich City man’s favour; the last two England goalkeepers to make similar errors were Scott Carson in a crucial European qualifier against Croatia at Wembley and Paul Robinson in an away tie in Zagreb.

Neither have been seen again in an England shirt.

The one consolation for England is that Green showed admirable courage in facing up to his mistakes, apologising to team-mates in the dressing room after the final whistle and then braving the post-match ‘mixed zone’ where players are grilled by journalists, telling anyone who would listen that he desperately wants to play against Algeria.

“You want to be a man, and you want to stand up,” said Green. “It’s at times like this where you want to be tested.

“If you’re going through a spell of playing good football and making wonderful saves, that’s not tough. This is tough, but this is why you’re in football, to prove yourself. It’s not a wonderful thing when someone kicks you in the balls, but it’s how you bounce back from that, that counts. Will I play against Algeria? That’s something that the manager will have to answer. I’ll certainly be prepared and ready to play.”

Green was careful not to make excuses for his error; turning down an opportunity to blame the much-maligned Jabilani World Cup ball. “It was amistake. It’s something that happens in life.” he said. “I’m not blaming the ball, I should have stopped it, there’s no two ways about it.”

There was a time when England was synonymous with top-class goalkeepers; Gordon Banks, Peter Shilton, Ray Clemence. But those days are long gone and ever since David Seaman allowed Ronaldinho’s speculative free-kick to float over his head in the World Cupquarter-finals in 2002 England’s goalkeeping talent has been in decline.

In fairness, there were problems long before that because Peter Bonetti, playing in the 1970 quarter-final because Banks was out with food poisoning, famously allowed a bobbling Franz Beckenbauer shot to squirm under his arm as West Germany came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and send England out. There are plenty of goalkeepers out there who can empathise with Green as he contemplates his World Cup nightmare this morning, then. But that will do little to ease his pain and little to help Capello make the toughest decision of his international management career so far. It’s a decision he cannot afford to fumble.