England given a World Cup reality check

Anyone who thought England had a great chance of winning this year's World Cup have been given a bit of a reality check. The three Lions scored after just four minutes against America but rarely rarely troubled Tim Howard during the rest of the game, with a Rob Green mistake costing two group points.

England took the lead in the fourth minute through Gerrard, although ITV obviously didn't want people to see the goal as they went to commercial break 20 seconds before the goal, to then go back to see Gerrard celebrating. England continued to dominate but a speculative effort from Dempsey was fumbled into his own net by Green.

Emile Heskey failed to score in a one on one just after half time, but otherwise England never really looked like scoring. Infact it was the Americans who came closest to scoring a winner when Green pushed a shot onto the post. The frustrating thing was that England were the better team in the game, but other than the goal, England didn't manage a shot on target that wasn't straight at Howard.

It looks to be a massive reality check to those who thought England's chances were better than in recent years. When you struggle to beat teams like USA, who, don't get me wrong aren't a bad side, how can you expect to beat teams like Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain or Argentina, all of whom are better than England?

England should still qualify but the draw now means that they are prone to finishing second in the group, which would set up a likely second round game against Germany. Although England famously beat Germany to win the World Cup in 1966, England have only won 5 of the 19 meetings since then.

England's next game is on Friday evening against Algeria. The draw does guarantee that England won't be bottom of the group after the first round of games.