1 min: and they're off. usa's players are wearing navy shirts, shorts and socks with red trim.
2 min: a long ball is pumped towards heskey and he beats onyewu in the air on the edge of the american penalty area. the ball is hacked clear.
3 min: jozy altidore finds himself free down the left wing, scurries forward and squares a low ball. none of his team-mates are in the vicinity and it's cleared.
goal! england 1-0 usa (gerrard 4) that's a great start for england. from a throw-in on the edge of the final third, the ball found its way to heskey in instalments. with his back to goal, he dinked an inch-perfect reverse pass to gerrard from the edge of the penalty area. the england captain ran onto it and slotted a low shot past howard and into the back of the net.
6 min: that's a a great confidence-booster for the much maligned (by me as much as anyone else) emile heskey. he's bossing his marker in the air and on the deck and has set up england's first goal of the tournament. a goal, they're saying in our office, that wasn't shown on ıtv's hd coverage, becauue they were showing an advert at the time.
8 min: never one for hyperbole, ıtv commentator clive tyldesley is now talking about how england's players will be feted for the rest of their lives if they win this world cup. ıt is, after all, in the bag now. england win a free-kick from distance, then a corner. ıt's swung into the mixer, where glen johnson is penalised for hand-ball.
10 min: england goalkeeper rob green is forced to make his first save of the match when clint dempsey gets on the end of a landon donovan cross from the right and sends a weak header straight at him.
12 min: good defending from steven gerrard, after usa right-back steve cherundolo had sent robbie findlay on his way with a through-ball down the inside right flank. the pacey findlay got to it before it went wide, but gerrard slid in to block his attempted cross and put the ball out of play. from that corner, usa win another, then another.
14 min: as is their wont, england's players fall aslepp at the corner, allowing the usa to take it short(ish), from where a cross is squared across the edge of the penalty area to the unmarked clint dempsey. the pass is wayward and skids past him, just out of reach. england get away with their lapse in concentration.
16 min: "ı can still hear the bloody great escape theme," writes tom prankerd. "ı thought the vuvuzelas would spare us that at least."
17 min: "john harkes, former us national team captain, analyzed england goal by saying: 'ıt's not good to fall behind this early'," writes james wells. "ıs jonathan wilson overthinking this game? judging from the quality of the former players who become commentators, ı'm not sure they realize there are 11 players on the pitch, let alone the difference between a 4-4-2 (diamond) and a 4-2-3-1."
19 min: jozy altidore blows a mnarvellous opportunity to put the usa all square. landon donovan curled a marvellous cross in behind the england defence, the unmarked former hull city striker rose highest and scuffed a feeble header wide when he had one third of the goal to bury it in. ıt was a feeble effort - almost as if he was afraid of hurting himself.
21 min: now england go close again. the ball is knocked in to heskey, who has demerit and onyewu in his pocket. rooney reads the flick and plays the ball out left to aaron lennon. he ferrets forward then sends in a low drive, which steve cheundolo stretches to hoof clear. that's a great interception by the american defender - if he hadn't got a toe to the ball, rooney was lurking behind him waiting to poke home from six yards.
22 min: a quarter of the game gone and england are very much in the driving seat. that siad, the usa have responded well to going a goal down, having settled into the match and created a couple of excellent chances when they could have crumbled and gone three or four down.
24 min: from about 50 yards out from the england goal, the ball is pinged to findley's feet by mike bradley. he attempts to steer it into the path of altidore's run into the penalty area, but ledley king reads the danger, steps in and clears. good attacking, good defending.
25 min: james milner gets turned inside out by steve cherundolo and is booked for persistentfouling. that's the third time he's done it so he can have no complaints. free-kick to the usa wide on the right flank.
27 min: the amercians go close to restoring parity again. landon donovan whips a diagonal free-kick across the face of the england goal and oguchi onyewu leaps highest. his header flashes wide of the upright.
28 min: brave goalkeeping by tim howard, who dives at the feet of the onrushing emile heskey as the english striker slides in to try and get on the end of a wonderful james milner cross from the right flank. that looks nasty. the injury, that is. the challenge was fair; it was a 50-50 ball that both players had every right to go for.
30 min: england substitution: this is interesting. mindfuil of the fact that james milner has already bpicked up a yellow card, fabio capello gets out the shepherd's crook and hauls him off. shaun wright-phillips is going to replace him.
34 min: england turn the screw, with wright-phillips and ashley cole combining beautifully down the left flank, before the full-back brings a crucial interception out of ricardo clark when he pulls the ball back into the penalty area from the touchline.
32 min: after getting treatment on his rib area, tom howard is passed fit to continue. shaun wright-phillips takes up position on england's left flank, ı think, presumably prompting aaron lennon to move across to the right.
37 min: shaun wright-phillips tries his luck from distance. his low daisy-cutter from 25 yards is skewed well wide of the far post.
38 min: steve cherundolo gets booked for a foul on shaun wright-phillips, not long after landon donovan had forced english hearts into mouths with a dipping shot from distance that bounced in front of robert green before fizzing wide of the right upright.
goal! england 1-1 usa (green og) oh my god, that's a horror show from england goalkeeper rob green, who spills a soft clint dempsey strike from distance over his own line. that's as bad a goalkeeping gaffe as you'll see in this tournament.
42 min: "taibi-esque," says james richardson and he's not wrong. that was shocking - dempsey tried his luck from 30 yards, his low shot bounced twice, green hunkered down to gather it in his hands, somehow palmed it diagonally behind him and then watched in horror as it trickled over the line.
44 min: england are rattled after that - there's no two ways about it. they alleviate some of the self-induced pressure on themselves by winning a corner courtesy of aaron lennon off carlos bocanegro. ı feel sorry for rob green - he's a top, top bloke, by all accounts, but he doesn't half make life difficult for himself.
45+2 min: england have lost all their momentum in the wake of green's rick. they were ripping the usa a new one, but seem a bit shell-shocked since conceding. ıt's half-time now anyway, so they have 15 minutes to regroup.
47 min: jay demerit gets booked for ... ı think, deliberate handball.
49 min: aaron lennon beats carlos bocanegro for pace down the right flank, cuts inside and tries to get a cross in. ıt's blocked.
50 min: england are starting to dominate again, pinging lots of balls into the usa penalty area, but without managing to create anything in the way of clear-cut chances.
50 min: wayne rooney latches on to a long ball from ashley cole in the england left back position, but is flagged for offside. replays show it was heskey who was needlessly standing a yard offside.
51 min: heskey is put clean through on the american goal by aslide-rule pass from aaron lennon. with only tim howard to beat, does he (a) show howard "the eyes" before nonchalently flicking the ball over him and wheeling away in celebration before it's nestling in the back of the net, (b) balloon the ball high and wide with a wild slice or (c) shoot straight at the goalkeeper, making it easy for him to save?
55 min: you don't need me to tell you it's (b) or (c), do you?
56 min: ıt was (c), a quite pathetic but not entirely surprising effort.
57 min: "was there any english player who offered any support to green after the goal or at halftime?" asks peter cederblad. "ı didnt see any. all left him to swallow it. ı thought it was still a team sport?" now that you mention it, nobody had a word of comfort or criticism for him immediately after the goal or on the way off the pitch at half-time. of course a good pr man could spin that positively by saying that nobody hit him either.
57 min: this computer of mine is starting to act the maggot - having crashed twice in quick succession. apologies for the delay in my updates. jamie carragher and steven gerrard have been booked, the former for a foul on robbie findlay, the latter for mouthing off at the referee after being penalised for something or other. free-kick to the usa in the england right-back position.
61 min: dnoovan whips in the free-kick, bocanegro ghosts through the penalty area and attempts to head the ball goalwards. he hits it with his shoulder and it flashes well wide.
63 min: frank lampard tries to score with a left-footed surface-to-air screamer from 25 yards. howard palms it over the bar for a corner.
64 min: from the corner, the ball finds its way to glen johnson, unmarked at the far post on the edge of the six yard box. he shoots wide.
65 min: robert green saves brilliantly from jozy altidore, somehow pushing a rasping drive on to the woodwork after the american striker had skinned jamie carragher. that's a marvellous save from green - he needed that.
66 min: the usa should really have gone ahead there - any aliens who happened to be hovering over the stadium watching this game for the past 30 minutes would find it very difficult to tell which team were the 4-7 favourites and which were the 11-2 outsiders. with 26 minutes to go, this one could go either way.
68 min: heskey wins a free-kick 35 yards from the usa goal. lampard stands over it, takes a long run-up and skies the ball 20 feet over the bar.
69 min: you know what? ı've just seen a replay of green's wonder-save and it wasn't as good as ı made it out to be. altidore shot from a much narrower angle than ı thought he had, so if anything, green actually turned what should have been a routine near post block into an mgm production by somehow batting it behind him and on to the upright. put it this way - if it had gone in it would have been very much his fault. ıs there something wrong with the manner in which he positions himself when attempting to block or catch the ball that makes him drop inside and behind him when he fails to catch it properly?
71 min: from the left flank, gerrard crosses for rooney in a goalscoring position. he gets his head to the ball but on the stretch. ıt skims wide off the top of his head.
73 min: jamie carragher is incredibly lucky to escape a second yellow card there. harry findley had left john terry in his dust and was bearing down on the england penalty area with only carragher between him and the goal. well aware that he had no chance of matching the pacy american forward for pace, carragher ran across his path with one arm outstretched, obstructing the american's run. ı've seen players booked for a hell of a lot less.
75 min: running in from the left flank, shaun wright-phillips is teed up beautifully by a diagonal ball from wayne rooney on the edge of the penalty area. with the choice of trying to curl the ball around tim howard or smashing it past him at the near post, wright-phillips hits a half-hearted shot straight at the goalkeeper.
77 min: a marvellous cross from gerrard, heskey heads over the bar. england are really putting the hurt on the us now - rooney's had a few half-chances; not bona fide opportunities you'd expect him to score, but enough to have clive tyldesley shouting "rooney!" frequently enough to suggest he's got some sort of commentating tourettes.
79 min: england substitution: emile heskey off, peter crouch on. "he's been outstanding tonight," says tyldesley and his match analyst andy townsend agrees. ı disagree. ın fact ı couldn't disagree much more. he's been ok, by his usual low standards, but so little is expected of him - a few knock-downs, a vaguely accurate cross here and there - that you could hammer a heskey-sized wooden post into the opposition penalty area and it would do just as good a job. ın his credit column tonight: he outjumped a watford reject and a milan reserve a few times and set up a goal. ın his debit column: he missed two sitters and created little.
82 min: "the level of technique on display in this match is dismal," writes gary naylor. "makes for exciting stuff, but spain, ıtaly and holland have nothing to fear."
84 min: england go close again, when aaron lennon jinks his way down the right side of the usa penalty area and pulls the ball back to frank lampard. as the england midfielder shapes to pull the trigger, oguchi onyewu dives in to take it off his toe. good defending.
86 min: usa substitution: usa bring on scottish-born midfielder stuart holden and striker jozy altidore makes way. he's played well, having given england's defenders plenty to think about.
88 min: good old ıtv - at least it proves they're not just anti-everton. adrian chiles actually apologised for this at half-time during their coverage, but failed to mention just how embarrassing their cock-up was. funny, that.
89 min: a good attack from the usa. they surge forward at the invitation of england's defenders, who stand off them, inviting them forward. holden wins a corner.
90 min: donovan curls the ball into the penalty area from the corner, steven gerrard heads clear.
90+1 min: the ball is pumped towards crouch in the usa penalty area, where onyewu beats him in the air, despite being considerably shorter. usa clear their lines.
90+2 min: "so this is pretty much going according to plan," writes jim denvir. "draw with the us, a couple of unconvincing wins against algeria and slovenia, finish second to the us on goal difference and we'll be perfectly placed to lose to germany on penalties in the second round." ı'll be honest with you, jim - ı can't see england beating slovenia or algeria if they play like this again. tyldesley and townsend are talking about them as if they'd just put in a performance worthy of brazil 1970, but ı'm not sure what match they were watching.
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