The Ghosts of England's Soccer PastBy Harold Evans

Ghosts of 1966 haunted this Brit-born American citizen, especially when poor Butterfingers Green missed a ball Gordon Banks would surely have scooped up.

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An Entirely Just OutcomeBy Tunku Varadarajan

England's failure to win may have something to do with their goalie's flub—but that doesn't mean Team U.S.A. didn't deserve every bit of their victory.

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Notable Playersby David Beard, Boston Globe Staff

It looked like Tim Howard was going to be out after a collision with Emile Heskey in the first half. He came back, and provided the solid net work that England could not do. A defensive misplay ahead of him set up the early first goal, but that was it, despite an intensive array of chances by or set up by Wayne Rooney in the second half.

After serious injury, and after looking slow-motion in matches leading up to the World Cup (such as the effort vs. the Czech Republic in Hartford last month), defender Oguchi Onyewu is a strong leader of the U.S. defense. He held his own against the much taller Peter Crouch, for example.

Wisconsinite Jay DeMerit, 31, a onetime walk-on for an obscure English team, marked the heralded Rooney so well that the Manchester United star didn't even get the ball in the first 17 minutes. Maybe the U.S. defense is stepping up.

Read the full post at Boston.com

Will Either Team Advance? by Rachel Ullrich, ESPN

It's been widely assumed that England and the U.S. will be the two teams to progress from Group C, one of the easiest in the entire Cup. But the 1-1 draw that came out of the favorites' matchup on Saturday suddenly made this group just a little more interesting.

Though Bob Bradley and the U.S. must be thrilled to have gotten a point from their opener against the Three Lions (especially when that point was basically handed to the squad from the opposition's goalkeeper ...), it does make both teams' position at the top of the table much more tenable.

Read the full post at ESPN

A Brit Point of View by Lee Lewis, Time Out

First blush reaction is that the U.S. stole a point and that England will be devastated. As I predicted, a draw was in the offing, but who could have seen it happening in this way?

Rooney: While he was getting more space late in the game, he really was never a factor. The U.S. did a nice job of marking him.

Donovan: Never a factor. At times you even forgot he was on the field.

More reaction: Times of London calls goalie miscue “Terrible Blunder”; The Sun calls it an “absolute howler”; the BBC calls it a “horrendous error”. The commentary from the other side of the pond will only get worse as the night goes along.

Really a solid job by U.S. to stay in the game after the nightmare start. Yes, we got real lucky on our goal as it got past the England keeper, but overall we steadied the ship after the first five minutes and played rather well. Not many scoring chances, but aside from a good save late by Howard, neither did England do much.

As for the stars, neither Landon Donovan or Wayne Rooney made much of a mark.

Read the full post at Time Out

A Fair Draw by Barry Glendenning, The Guardian

Peep! Peep! Peep! Brazilian referee Carlos Simon draws proceedings to a close and the sides finish all square. It's probably fair to say that both will be relieved not to have lost and disappointed not to have won, so a draw is probably a fair result. Assuming they were watching the match in their respective hotels, the players of Slovenia and Algeria will sleep very, very soundly in their beds tonight. The USA are not going to win this World Cup and neither are England. I'll forgive anyone a slow start in a tournament, but the main shortcoming England's players suffer from—an inability to concentrate, overcome adversity or pass the ball quickly from A to B with any regularity—take years, not a fortnight to remedy.

Player ratings: Go on, get judging you heartless fiends. And be nice to Robert Green. He's going to feel bad enough tonight without you lot riffing on his pain.

My paper cup: Has now got a bite-sized chunk missing out of it. I'm glad I didn't say I'd eat my shoe if one of Carragher and Terry didn't give away a penalty. I'm off to create podcasting gold with AC Jimbo—it should be up here before midnight. Thanks for your time and your emails, enjoy the rest of your evening.

Read the full post at The Guardian

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Joshua Robinson is a freelance writer based in Manhattan. He graduated from Columbia in 2008 and has covered everything from the London stock exchange to the World Series.