All together:
“USA! USA! USA! USA!”
Get the soccerball past the netminder. AWESOME!
Those Yanks know how to butcher a perfectly good game, don’t they? At least they’ve got a couple of calming influences in the camp – the likes of Tim Howard, Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey have all had their pom-poms confiscated during their time in the Premier League, and while we’re grateful that the American ritual bastardising of the beautiful game has slowed a bit, at the same time their very being in English football makes the job of Fabio, Stevie, Frank, Roon and Francis Jeffers just that bit more difficult this evening.
What are we expecting from this clash? What do we always expect when England play? Nervousness. Elation. Terror. Fear. Phlegm. Despair. And probably a bit of puke around midnight.
And that’s just the players.
If we’re going to do anything over the next four weeks we need to score goals. Lots of ‘em. Starting today.
Tim Howard has had another decent campaign in the Everton goal – indeed, he has played every single minute of every single Premier League game for the last two seasons, so as far as experience goes, he’s well buffed. He came out this week declaring that Fabio’s men would be “quaking in their boots”… hmm, okay then. Well he’ll need to be pretty sturdy in his own – namely a pair of Nike Tiempo Legend Elites. A new boot, a new reputation. So, a risk?
Well the jury is out on this one. You’ll get players who swear by a particular piece of footwear, rarely changing it because they know it won’t let them down… Jamie Carragher a good example with his Adidas Predator X cleats. Howard, on the other hand, has always liked this brand, but switching to a new model on the eve of arguably the biggest tournament of his life, why would he do that?
Well, hard cash, obviously, but that aside the Tiempo – new model or old – is a solid brand of boot. It’s not going to put the player on a knife-edge of brilliance or disaster as might, say, the Nike Mercurial Vapor Superfly.
Howard may be looking at the Tiempo Legend Elite‘s re-engineered soleplate, but for the most part he’ll be checking out the new stud configuration, just like any keeper. If he can get from A to B, and can believe in the grip the boot provides, then he’ll be a happy chappy. That’s not to say the Nike Tiempo Legend Elite will be able to provide him with enough propulsion to get in the way of a Rooney rasper, but he’s at least improving his odds.
Although obviously not too much, we hope…
Other Recommended Reading
- England Fans Set For A Koren-ary
- Boot Wars Special: 2010 World Cup Final
- World Cup 2010: Pessimism Is For Losers…
- Boot Wars: World Cup Final Review
- World Cup Omissions
About the author
James is an experienced football journalist who edits two leading Premier League club mags. He has worked for Sky Sports and is endlessly complaining about shin splints. And Mark Lawrenson. His favourite boot is the Adidas Predator Powerswerve. Although it's rumored that he once owned a pair of Nicks boots!
Read more from James Evans and subscribe with RSS .
