There is something inherently masochistic about being English. Every time one of the big tournaments come along we start to believe this will be the year, this time it will be different, it will all come together and we’ll mow down everyone in front of us like a coked up Rambo in a Vietnamese POW camp.

Some times there are even reasons to feel this optimistic. There are no shortages of performances that show us we have reason to believe. The 11 heroes who held Italy 0-0 in Rome before the ’98 World cup and of course that night in Munich in 2001 on the way to Japan and Korea four years later.

On those evenings we had glimpses of what England is capable of, we had reasons to believe.

This time was no different; I’ve spent the last two years watching a good team make qualifying look as straightforward as any England team I’ve ever seen. After the disaster of Erikson and failing to make Euro 98, Capello took over and with essentially the same players made it look easy.

We had reason to think that England could go deep into the tournament. No real stand out players beyond Rooney, some off the field issues, no set keeper and a couple of injuries all gave pause. Despite all that they looked like a team that had shown us they knew how to play together and make the sum greater than the parts.

Then there is what we’ve seen over the last month, two warm up games against Mexico and Japan followed by the first two group games.

I don’t know if it’s burn out at the end of a long season, on the surface a reasonable excuse as some players are approaching 50 games in the last year.

Interestingly it does seem that the European teams have generally underperformed, especially compared to the South American sides. But a majority of the top South American players all ply their trade in Europe and are coming off the same 45+ game seasons, yet don’t seem to be affected in the same way.

You’d have thought at after 40 years of World Cups and European Championships I’d be used to this feeling of underachievement and disappointment.

One World Cup semi-final and one Euro Championship semi-final (both lost to the Germans on penalties BTW) is little show for a life of dedication to the England cause. It’s not as easy; deep down a little optimistic part of me truly believes that England can do it, that it’s going to be different this year.

I think it’s the lot of the England supporter. We get built up just to be knocked down by the cold, hard fist of reality smacking us in the face.

A nice change of pace this evening after one of the worst England performances I can remember, the game I shall mention no more… OK, no more than once more any way.

Tonight was my first Mariners game of the year. Inter-league play with the Cincinnati Reds in town for a weekend series. I got invited and had no idea who was pitching and glanced at the standings for the first time in a couple of weeks and found the M’s were doing worse than I thought. Won 25, lost 46 and 13 games out of first place in a four-team division.

While I enjoy baseball and certainly went through a year or two of going to maybe 20 games a year, it’s been one or two games a year for the last few seasons. Sitting in a three-quarter empty Safeco Field in the cold Seattle spring is not exactly conducive to a great atmosphere. Carl had a spare ticket for this evening, and it was time for a trip to Safeco Field.

And the “hydro races” on the big screen drive me potty. Three boats racing around a course and you’re asked to choose your favorite… At least the game where you follow the hat the ball is hidden under requires concentration. The hydro races and picking the winning boat is total guesswork and for some unfathomable reason the hydros got the biggest cheer of the evening.

I like baseball for the same reasons I like cricket, and it’s not really the game itself. You go there with friends, be social and watch while a story unfolds in front of you.

As with many American sports I dislike all the artificial rabble rousing that baseball feels is required to get some noise and create an atmosphere. I hope the Sounders have shown Seattle that if the team shows passion for the game along with an educated crowd you can dispense with the requests for clapping and yelling.

Spending years immersed in the European football culture (both passionate good and hooligan filled bad) and going to my first baseball game (Astros vs. Giants in the Astrodome in ’86) it all seemed very strange and rather forced. The Astrodome was spectacular, way beyond any other stadium I’d been too. The score board with galloping horses unlike anything I’d seen before and the game interesting (I had someone who knew baseball explaining it to me), however I could never quite understand the attempt at creating an atmosphere.

That’s my problem with the whole American sporting experience. Baseball is perhaps the worst offender, it’s a naturally slow game and that seems to be part of the appeal. As I said, I like how it slowly unfolds in front of you over a period of two and a half or three hours. However the same artificial sense of urgency is present in basketball, hockey and to a slightly lesser extent American football.

If you have a crowd educated in the game it seems unnecessary, football (round ball) has never needed it, even among casual supporter. Whatever the sport it’s clear when things are exciting, it’s clear when things are not going well. I don’t think stadiums need to tell the audience that.

Onto tonight’s game. Turns out Cliff Lee, the M’s top pitcher was starting. He pitched the entire game, only 110 pitches to get through 9 innings. He gave up 6 hits, struck out 7 and gave up no runs. Very impressive outing, he worked fast and the game was over in a little over two and a quarter hours.

Mariners won 1-0 in a very fun to watch defensive game.

Briefly back to the England performance. It really was atrocious, hopefully this gives Capello the kick he needs to actually examine the way they play. I’ve not looked at the British red tops yet (the more mass-media newspapers), but I’m sure they have plenty to say.

Wayne Rooney was upset at the England fans booing the team of the pitch. The team played with no energy, no passion and there was no excuse for that performance at this level. It’s very fair for the fans to make their displeasure known.

If this really is the best they can do, then they don’t deserve to go on. I hope this is the wake up the team needs, I hope Capello makes the changes necessary to do what they have to against a decent Slovenia on Wednesday, where nothing less than a win will be enough.

Stuart Pearce knows more than anyone what pulling on the three lions should mean, if the players don’t get that, if they don’t understand how big a stage this is and the millions of people that this matters too then they should not be on the field.

That’s it, I’ve said my piece about England’s performance against Algeria, not going to mention it again.

Last Saturday lunchtime Englishmen all over North America pulled on the three lions, went to the bar, sang Go Save the Queen and expected England to do the business over the hosts.

The Three Lions pub in Redmond was full to brimming, there were hundreds at the George and Dragon in Fremont and the story was repeated all over Seattle and North America.

Here is the basics, England invented football. Americans don’t like football, they don’t even call it football, they use the “S” word. In Seattle football competes with baseball and a game called football.

Us English, on the other hand, live and die the game, it’s important and we see the three lions as an extension of who we are. The whole idea of being beaten at ‘our’ game by the Americans is just about the greatest shame I can imagine. It’s not only the result on the field; it’s the ribbing at work and the piss taking from friends. It would be bad.

In 2010 it’s no longer true to say football is a game that does not interest Americans, it does. Also it’s a game that the Americans are rather good at, Landon Donovan may be the first world class player to come out of the US youth system, and its got the potential to be a rich source of good players.

The MLS Championship game does not hold the appeal of the World Series (named because it was originally sponsored by the ‘The World’ newspaper) or the Super Bowl. But last year in Seattle there was 45,000 knowledgeable fans there for the game.

In 1994 the US hosted the World Cup (England did not make it, look for “Graham Taylor impossible job” on youtube, it’s worth it) in 1996 the US launched Major League Soccer (MLS) as the top-level league in the US. MLS had some slightly rocky times in the first few years, but seems to be doing OK now. There are 16 teams, and over the next two years adds three more. There are quite a few “soccer specific stadiums” and the league as a whole (led by Seattle, LA and Toronto) should make a small profit this year or next. Something way beyond the premier league.

The average attendance for MLS is approaching 20,000, similar to the Coca-cola championship. Seattle play to 36,000 every game, Toronto sell out 22,000 each home game and are looking to expand their stadium.

The youth system is huge, for kids football is the number 1 participation sport in the USA. Having been part of the set up in Washington State as a coach, it’s well organized with a lot of good coaches for the kids that are good enough. It is aimed at preparing kids for college; there is no real club academy system for the elite kids. The truth is last Saturday’s game was not just about Robert Green’s mistake. England had the entire second half to score another goal and could not do so.

And the United States were well worth the draw.

Just before the disastrous US run at World Cup in 1998 (and before the failure of the US team to beat Iran) the US Soccer Federation unveiled “Project 2010″. A 12 year, $50 million project to pave the way for the US to win the World Cup in 2010. I do think the US should qualify for the finals every time. Looking at CONCACAF it should be US, Mexico (the only real rival for the US team in the confederation) plus one or two of whichever of the other Central American or Caribbean teams are having a good run of form. Four years ago it was Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago, this time it’s Honduras that gets a trip to the finals.

This does lead to the US having a somewhat inflated FIFA ranking and I get that me saying the “US should qualify… every time” is a bold statement, but with the resources they have to pull from and the opposition in CONCACAF there would be no excure for not making the finals every time. 16 years ago it was different and qualification was not a sure thing, and now it’s expected and that’s progress.

When “Project 2010″ was started consistent qualification was about where the US team was at, but today there seems little ambition beyond that. The US has a few outfield players consistently playing their club football in Europe. Landon Donovan is the best player to emerge from the US youth system, a good player who did well at Everton. He has direct style that works well in the MLS and suits the Premier League OK, but I think he would be found technically wanting in Italy or Spain.

The remains of “Project 2010″ carry on today as the “Generation Adidas” program. Generation Adidas is a venture between MLS and USSF and has been very successful in identifying and helping younger players prepare for playing professionally.

The first generation of players coming though the revamped system (led by Beasley and Donovan) made it to the last 8 in the 2002 World Cup, before loosing out to a good German side. This showed a lot of progress in a just 8 years, from happy to be there, to giving an established side a good run in the knock out phase.

So with all of this in place and a couple of generations of players coming through the revamped system, is just qualifying for the World cup every four years enough? If fans expect more than just being there, then the question becomes why does the US struggle against well drilled sides?

Clearly on the day the US can beat anyone, but the flip side of this, they can be beaten by anyone on their day. And that’s a problem.

I’ve played football in the past, it was organized and just for fun. I was a goalkeeper and I was not very good. But I knew how to have fun and slowly got better. Even at my best I was never what you’d call competent, but had a lot of fun playing in a recreational League on a Monday evening.

Compared to the other 20 players on the pitch goalkeepers are the strange ones. Pretty much by definition we put our bodies where the rest of the players put their studs. Our job is to stop the game dead. This is a game that I’m on the record as saying at it’s best when it flows from one player to another.

Why play in goal? I like the contact, I like not running around nearly as much and after years of rugby it seemed like a natural extension.

Goalkeepers make a choice to stand out from the rest of the team. It’s an inherently negative job and rarely will you get the glory (penalty kicks aside, even I saved one every now and again), but you are often the focus of the rest of the teams ire.

And that’s what happened to Robert Green on Saturday; One mistake, one mistake is all anyone will remember from his World Cup. We’ll forget the great save to his near post that kept England in the game during the second half, but hold on to the miss. How many opportunities did Rooney and co miss? Yet they always get another chance, ‘keepers don’t get the luxury.

Football is a sport defined by its flow and energy. The goalkeeper has long periods of apparent inaction, followed by the moments their day will be judged on. Moments where there their role is to act as a spoiler and kill that flow and energy.

They are also deeply contrary, choosing to play with their hands (it’s called “football” – the clue is in the name) in a game where the rule about not touching the ball is listed some where near the front of the rule book (except where God allows it, see Maradona).

Just time for a self indulgent aside and apology. In my last game I got sent off. It was a recreational game a few years ago at Starfire in Tukwilla.

I executed a perfect sliding tackle just outside the box. I got the ball. OK, I carried through with my trailing leg and took the player out, but that was momentum and I cleanly took the ball. The bastard little Hitler in black showed me a yellow card. I disagreed and asked him if he was fucking joking, then where his fucking guide dog was, and I believe I followed that up with another question about his sight. I got a second yellow for dissent.

That one I deserved.

To the refs of this world, I’m sorry for arguing with you. I understand why you don’t listen when players have problems with your calls. It’s a crappy job that you could not pay me enough to do, but tust occasionally you get it wrong.

Taking a quick poll of the ex-pats at work and friends at home I have concluded that Englishmen world wide have gone slightly (and hopefully temporarily) insane. The speed at which the press went from “World champions in waiting” to “Book the flight home…”, while predicable, was none the less impressive. It seems the country has jumped too.

An international team takes on something of the personality of the country they represent. Germany; uber efficient, clinical finishing and produce a quality product. Italy; disorganized, but looking good doing it.

You get the idea.

Then there are the slightly shit ball fumbling idiots that are England. We are all just a little incompetent and as a nation we celebrate that. While we accept that, occasionally it all comes together and we look good.

If I thought the English press may have over reacted to Robert Greens fumble, imagine what the Spanish newspapers are going to do today after the loss to Switzerland.

As this world cup is showing, reality is international sides are pretty equal. There are a lot of one goal games and I did not think that teams were going to win games by 3 or 4 goals. Then I sat down to watch the Germans take on a talked up Australian team. That one ended 4-0.

We are five days into the World Cup, I’ve watched about half the game fully and highlights or radio commentary of most of the rest. The football has been largely Ok ,but no better. Teams seem more worried about loosing their first game and have played very safe, negative style. Not loosing the first game being more important than winning.

Of the big teams Italy, France, England and Portugal have been OK to disappointing at best.

Germany were outstanding, unquestionably the best side so far. OK it was a poor Australian side that looked a step or two off the pace, but Germany did what good teams should do and comprehensively beat them.

Something Brazil failed to do today against a well drilled, but ultimately inexperienced North Korea team. Korea set out to hold Brazil back, and they did the job worrying well if you follow Brazil.

Argentina and the Netherlands have both played positive football and I look forward to seeing both these teams play again to see how good they may be.

Spain is the last of the fancied teams to start play. They take on Switzerland tomorrow (Wednesday) in Durban.

It’s nothing like 1990, which was an atrociously defensive tournament, Argentina in particular played only negative football in Italy, and it was enough to take them to the final. They were primarily concerned (like Italy and a few others) with giving nothing away. Hope to get something on the break and be prepared to settle for penalties if it came to that.

After Italia ’90 FIFA started trying to open the game up. They tinkered with the offside rule, gave a certain amount of benefit to attackers, differentiated between “active” and “passive” players and gave the attacker the benefit of the doubt a little more. To some extent this approach worked, the World cup in ’94 and Euro ’96 were far better examples of better tournaments with a lot more good football.

It may be easier (once again see North Korea today) to build a defensive team rather than a team that’s capable of going out and winning a game at the top level. Another example would be Inter successfully working for 90 minutes to keep Barcelona penned up to win the European Cup.

As teams start needing the points in the second and third round of group games over the next 10 days, it should open up a little and we should have a better idea of who really sits where.

But today, Germany look like the team to beat, and the runner up in Group C (England’s group) will probably be first to have a go at them in the knock out stage.

Time for my glass half full moment. Yesterdays game has certainly been on my mind and the result was disappointing for England, but no more than that.

The peerless British sports pages (and I mean that as a complement, mostly) have a couple of takes on this. First, it’s an error, an important game costing error, but just an error none the less and everything will be fine. The second and rather more reactionary story is that this was proof that England are not the world beaters they have been hyped up (by the same hacks, BTW) to be.

Time to look back in history. In 1966 (of course, it always comes back to 1966) England opened with a draw against Uruguay. Ultimately England triumphed and took possession of Jules Rimet for four years.

Then there was Italy in Espana 92. During the group stage Italy drew their three group matches. This was no group-of-death, the opposition was Poland, Peru and Cameroon. In the knockout stage they came alive as they sweep aside Argentina, Brazil and finally taking out West Germany 3-1 to lift the trophy.

To be fair that Italy side was full of world class quality, starting with Dino Zoff between the sticks, top scorer Paolo Rossi, Giuseppe Bergomi, Marco Tardelli and maybe the best sweeper ever in Gaetano Scirea (yes, I think better than Cruyff and Beckenbauer).

I admit that no matter how hard you squint at the team sheet, the England team does not have that depth of talent, but there is plenty of bright side there.

To even up the “they can still do it, look at Italy” optimism, the last six winners of the World Cup have all started the tournament with a win in their opening game…

I still believe, I still believe that England have the ability to win this. They really do need things to start going their way and after loosing Ledley King with a groin strain (on top of the Rio Ferdinand injury), JT passes that went out for throw ins and Rob Greens blunder I hope they have used up all their bad luck. Next game sees the return of Gareth Barry, this should give the side a new look going forward. We will find out more Friday, after drawing with the Americans we need to start thinking about goal difference, winning the group makes life a lot easier once we get to the knock out stages.

By the way, didn’t the Germans looked good today?

Dear mum, it’s been a while and I miss you. The world has changed very much with out you in it, but I guess that goes without saying. Not just bad changes, some are good as the dark clouds part. I’d trade them all to spend another afternoon with you.

I know you’d be so proud of dad and the way he’s handled the transition. He misses you so much, but that’s not a surprise to anyone is it? A 43-year-old marriage died along with you, I did not understand that at the time, I don’t think any of us did. We are trying to look after dad as best we can, but the stubborn and independent streak that was passed down from grandparents, to parents to my brother and I, runs deep in all of us.

I still expect you to answer the phone when I call, it was one of those things that showed me the world was right. Rain on May bank holidays and you answering the phone. If it helps I know exactly what you’d say had I called today with the World Cup is on. “Do you want to speak to your father? I’ll get your father, he’s watching that bloody football, he’s always watching football. How much longer is this cup thing going on for?”

Thank you for the letters, it took me a long time to take them from Dad, eventually he just handed them to me and said take them. They sat tucked into the cover of a notebook for a while before I opened them. Not so much because I was scared that you were gone, but more because it made everything seem so final and I was not ready for that.

There are moments when something happens and it’s really hard knowing I’ll not get to share the stories about unicycles, dinners  and so on with you. More than occasionally I catch myself thinking “mum will love this…” and then it comes upon me that I can’t.

One other person you’d be so proud of is Steve, he has done such an amazing job with guiding Nimah and helping her through out this. Exposing her to the reality and transition but keeping her away from the center of things. I’m really impressed, he is a great father, but we had good role models.

You know we are so alike and I think that’s been at the root of the ups and downs in our relationship over the last 20 years. There have been times we have not got on as well as we maybe should have done, but I’ve always known I’m loved no matter what. I’m glad over the last couple of years we got back to where we should have been.

One of the strangest things was staying in the house . It’s been well over 20 years since I spent a night in your house alone, it felt really strange and something was missing. Even though I had Dora the Explorer to keep me company in the spare bedroom, it did not feel right. Dad’s not been keeping the house to your standard, the dust is pretty thick in places and he’s not vacuuming every couple of days the way you did, but he is doing OK.

I know you believed in an afterlife of some description, I hope you were right and the rest of us totally missed the mark on that one. It gve you comfort, and I think dad got something out of it too.

We all miss you and I just wish I knew what to say next.

South Africa opened the World Cup with a great goal; England opened theirs with an utterly unbelievable goalkeeping blunder. It was a widely held belief among England fans that the keeper was not one of the team’s strengths, and so it’s proven. Green gave the US their goal with an unforced error, and England were never able to get back into the game.

It was not a classic England performance, the team has a deserved reputation for starting slowly in big tournaments. Maintaining tradition, todays outing was particularly unmemorable.

The goal came down to an elementary mistake by Rob Green on a soft shot by Clint Dempsey. Green holds onto that 999 times out of a 1000, why did it have to be today? Green was not helped by England playing back, perhaps defending too deep and allowing the US team space to play further up the field

In the plus column Rob Green did have a great reflex save in the second half turning Altidores close range shot onto the post, but post match will inevitable focus on the mishandling of what was more of a back pass than a well struck shot on goal.

For all the questions around Emile Heskeys selection on the strength of three Premier League goals last season, he was the provider with a well-placed pass into the path of Gerrard. The England captain finished well slotting the ball past Howard. Five minutes in and England were 1-0 up.

Sadly this is England in their opening game of the world cup. Following tradition, the team seldom does things the easy way from the beginning. All the hard work was undone five minutes before half time by a goalkeeping screw-up we will be talking about for years to come.

England was defending deeply and a lot of the play was taking place in England’s half of the field. While the US were not getting too much penetration, nor were England for much of the game. Rooney was noticeable for his lack of impact, there seemed to be something of a disconnect between the midfield pairing of Gerrard and Lampart and the front two.

Milner was replaced early. Ledley King did not start the second half and will be out of the Algeria game. Capello took a couple of risks in the team, one of which was King, and it’s not paid off so far.

England had chances, but as we got further into the second half there was a growing feeling that it was just not going to be England’s night. There were chances on goal, but they seemed to be straight at Howard causing him no real issues.

It was not a total disaster for England and some perspective is needed. It was only the opening game and 4 or 5 points are all that’s needed to go through to the second round. England did not play consistently well; against a well-drilled side like the US it was not good enough. Friday it’s Algeria, drop points there and we’ve a problem. I’d like to see a comfortable win, over the course of the tournament luck evens out, I think England is owed a little by the football gods after today, I hope they had a good laugh and England learned a lesson or two. We’ll find out more on Friday.

“BP notes the fall in its share price in US trading last night. The company is not aware of any reason which justifies this share price movement.”

No seriously, that’s what BP had to say today. The press release is here and quite frankly, what are these guys on?