A Poor Workman Blames His Tools

So far we've had two mega goalkeeping errors in the first days of World Cup. England's Green let in a shot because he didn't follow a rule that even middle school goalkeepers know: get in front of the ball and smother it. Don't try to catch it from the side. Ever. The result was a 1-1 draw between the US, which was really stung early in the first half, and England, which for all its star power doesn't play like a team. The tabloid press in the UK today was really ugly.

This is what makes for ugly press:



And then today, as if yesterday's goof weren't enough a wake up call, Slovenia, a country the size of Houston, beat Algeria on a goalkeeping error. And, instead of just eating crow and moving on, the Algerian coach had this to say:

Algerian coach Rabah Saadane said the new World Cup ball was a challenge for goalkeepers.

"Everyone saw what happened with the ball, and what happened yesterday with England's goalkeeper," Saadane said. "You have to adjust to the flight of the ball."

source

Yeah. I saw what happened. Here it is:



Coach, that's not a problem with a ball. That's called goalkeeper spacing out. Nice try though.