Altidore 2-1 Wright-Phillips
In this high-octane opening clash from Group C, Hull City's Jozy Altidore started up front for Team USA but had barely touched the ball before England went ahead. Altidore led the fightback though, causing England's shaky and sluggish defence all sorts of problems and narrowly heading Donovan's cross wide in the 17th minute. In the second half King, a man with one knee, was replaced by Carragher, a man who simply cannot sprint, and A17idore was rubbing his hands together with anticipation. His chance came in the 64th minute where he outpaced and outmuscled Carragher only to see his one-on-one shot touched onto the post by Green more by luck than by judgement.
With Wright-Phillips starting on the bench and for many a surprise inclusion in Capello's squad, it seemed that USA-England would be a simple points victory for Altidore, but 17 fans across the world were excited to see SWP's number 17 flashing up on the linesman's board as he was thrown on in place of ineffectual World Cup débutant Milner. However, rather predictably, he had a bit of a shocker. He rarely managed to beat his man down the left and on the rare occasions that he did, his crossing was horribly and characteristically inaccurate. On top of this, he had a great chance to seal the win for England but put his finish straight at Howard.
Despite all this, we were happy to see him get so many minutes on the pitch. For this reason we concede him 1 point. Altidore, for being a constant threat to England, a reliable outlet up front, and an inspiration to his teammates, gets 2, but was half a post's width away from scoring a 3.
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