JOHANNESBURG: You don't prepare mentally for making great saves and playing the perfect game. You prepare for trauma. Great thoughts, remarkable composure and some defiance in the face of what has swiftly become the gaffe of the World Cup, Robert 'Greenhorn' Green's playground blooper on Saturday night against the US, has catapulted the West Ham goalkeeper into unwanted limelight.
And while everyone is swiftly drawing up lists of English goalkeeping howlers at major football events rating the Rustenburg riot as the worst, it has also reopened the debate that does the rounds each major football championship: Is England a victim of its own outdated intellectual arrogance?
From David Seaman to Paul Robinson to Green - stopping midway to help David 'Calamity' James fish the ball out of his net - England's tryst with goalkeeping blunders is only strengthening. As videos of the latest blooper are racing up the charts on the Net, Green is unruffled. "It won't affect me psychologically," he said later. "I'm 30, I'm a man, and you have hardships in life and prepare for them. At a younger point in my life it would have affected me more."
This could be just an honest mistake by a top-class goalkeeper (as the English would have us believe) at the highest level, but while clearly apart from Beckham and Rooney's metatarsals, goalkeeping remains the most fragile link in the England set-up, the goalkeepers alone cannot be blamed for England's ineptitude. Current skipper Steven Gerrard is famous for his suicidal backpasses, while Frank Lampard has missed so many penalties that they have stopped keeping count.
With Fabio Capello at the helm, Gerrard as skipper and Rooney at full tilt, there seemed a return to the old working class ethos for England this time. There was a sneaking feeling about them this time, but may be it is their hype which makes it believable, at play again.
Suddenly, there is growing discontent over Capello's methods, his decision of persisting with the out-of-depth Emile Heskey for one - and his perceived lack of control. Many are puzzled why he chose Green ahead of the veteran James, who on his day can swing between the sublime and the ridiculous. Green was James' understudy going into the World Cup.
Which team serious about winning takes along an injured superstar to stand in his best-cut suit in the dugout and ostensibly cheer on his mates? David Beckham has replaced the WAGs in the English scheme of things this time. Ronaldinho has been sacked, no one is shedding a tear anymore for Javier Zanetti. Their countrymen, like their teams have moved on. It is the hallmark of a team focussed on winning, which you cannot say with conviction about England.
And while everyone is swiftly drawing up lists of English goalkeeping howlers at major football events rating the Rustenburg riot as the worst, it has also reopened the debate that does the rounds each major football championship: Is England a victim of its own outdated intellectual arrogance?
From David Seaman to Paul Robinson to Green - stopping midway to help David 'Calamity' James fish the ball out of his net - England's tryst with goalkeeping blunders is only strengthening. As videos of the latest blooper are racing up the charts on the Net, Green is unruffled. "It won't affect me psychologically," he said later. "I'm 30, I'm a man, and you have hardships in life and prepare for them. At a younger point in my life it would have affected me more."
This could be just an honest mistake by a top-class goalkeeper (as the English would have us believe) at the highest level, but while clearly apart from Beckham and Rooney's metatarsals, goalkeeping remains the most fragile link in the England set-up, the goalkeepers alone cannot be blamed for England's ineptitude. Current skipper Steven Gerrard is famous for his suicidal backpasses, while Frank Lampard has missed so many penalties that they have stopped keeping count.
With Fabio Capello at the helm, Gerrard as skipper and Rooney at full tilt, there seemed a return to the old working class ethos for England this time. There was a sneaking feeling about them this time, but may be it is their hype which makes it believable, at play again.
Suddenly, there is growing discontent over Capello's methods, his decision of persisting with the out-of-depth Emile Heskey for one - and his perceived lack of control. Many are puzzled why he chose Green ahead of the veteran James, who on his day can swing between the sublime and the ridiculous. Green was James' understudy going into the World Cup.
Which team serious about winning takes along an injured superstar to stand in his best-cut suit in the dugout and ostensibly cheer on his mates? David Beckham has replaced the WAGs in the English scheme of things this time. Ronaldinho has been sacked, no one is shedding a tear anymore for Javier Zanetti. Their countrymen, like their teams have moved on. It is the hallmark of a team focussed on winning, which you cannot say with conviction about England.
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