Is it illogical to heap blame on Englands hapless goalkeepers?
England keepers are born to fail at the World Cup This has been a difficult week for England’s goalkeepers. Robert Green, who seems to be Fabio Capello’s No1, continued to refine his current air of scholarly, dignified suffering, adopting in defeat to Wolves the facial expression of a classically trained flautist reduced to strumming Bob Marley standards in a dual carriageway underpass while being pelted with Chewits by youths in tracksuits. In midweek David James had another headline moment of misfortune, committing what BBC radio described as “a goalkeeping howler with the World Cup just 79 days away”, as though this in itself were news, evidence of some vital oversight or preparation-deficit. It may seem illogical to blame James for an untimely bobble of the ball, but I believe we should, mainly because goalkeeping is an illogical business, a pseudo science that – despite some waffle about angles and big-making and wrist-firmness – is still bound up in an invisible world of aura and
