I've been a fan of Howard for about ten years now. It is wonderful to see him get his chance on this stage. I guess he was the keeper in '06, but that team was dysfunctional. Now there is a solid team in front of him, and he provided the edge in outperforming England. Even after getting cleated in the chest, possibly suffering broken ribs, he didn't let it show and played an outstanding match. He's had bigger performances, such as Spain last year in the Confederations Cup, where the US withstood a more potent onslaught, but this one is to date the most significant.
It seems that Oguchi Onyewu was as much at fault for the England goal as was the more obvious Ricardo Clark. Yes, Clark should have marked Gerrard's run, but Onyewu abandoned his space in the back four to go for the ball, and it was that space Gerrard ran through. Had Onyewu maintained discipline, he would have been in position to defend the pass to Gerrard. Onyewu made the same mistake several times, but only that one was punished.
Overall, though, the US defense did quite well. Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney are an attacking trio as able as any in the world, and they were held in check. Rooney was a non-factor for most of the game, and even late was not able to impose on the game. We will need better from Onyewu in future games, but he was playing his first full game, and his first meaningful game at all, since October.
Next up is Slovenia on my daughter's birthday. I know next to nothing about Slovenia except that it is an eastern European side. I have no idea if we should be favored or not, but I want to see a win. If we win that game, we will probably be in shape to advance. But I don't want to just advance. I want to win the group. I want the prestige and the competitive advantage of winning the group. I'm looking for Landon Donovan to lead us there. A goalkeeping hero can keep you in the game, but it takes a field player to win it.
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