Half-Time: England 1-1 USA: Green Howler Cancels Out Gerrard Strike

England and the USA are drawing 1-1 in their World Cup group C match inside the Royal Bafokeng stadium.

The Three Lions took the lead early through a neat Steven Gerrard finish. But the United States were allowed back into the game after a goalkeeping error from Robert Green, who allowed a tame Clint Dempsey shot to creep past the goal-line.

The game started in high tempo with England putting the USA under pressure immediately. The much maligned Emile Heskey proved a good early outlet for the Three Lions and his link-up play kept the United States back-four occupied.

Less than five minutes on the clock and the positive start from Capello's men was to pay off.

A ball up to Wayne Rooney was mis-controlled by the Manchester United talisman but Heskey was there to pick up the loose ball. The targetman showed good vision to spot Gerrard breaking into the box and his reverse path was straight into his captain's path. The skipper fought off the attentions of defender DeMerit and slid the ball neatly past a despairing Tim Howard to give the Three Lions a dream start.

The Americans were shocked but to their credit, after conceding they got their foot on the ball and started to create chances for themselves.

A spell of possession from them saw a corner awarded, and Oguchi Onyewu perhaps could have done better when he connected in the box from the set-piece, but his header flew high and wide over the ball.

Not long after and the USA had an even better chance. England weren't proficient with their ball retension and this allowed dangerman Landon Donovan to drift down the left channel to deliver a dangerous ball across the six-yard box.

Altidore seemed to arrive fractionally too late to connect though and a gilt-edged chance for the Americans went begging.

There was a real cut and thrust to the game at this point and straight down the other end England hit their opponents on the counter. A direct ball up to Rooney was controlled superbly and the striker dinked an excellent ball over the USA back-line to release Aaron Lennon down the right flank.

The speedy winger put on the burners and charged towards the by-line. Rooney and Heskey were waiting in the middle for the cross but excellent defending by DeMerit stopped a dangerous ball from reaching its target and the USA were saved.

The USA were giving as good as they got though and good link-up play between Donovan and Findley saw them fashion a half-chance soon after, Donovan's curling drive on the edge of the box had the keeper scrambling, but the shot was just wide.

After that and the English goalkeeper was involved again, in an incident that he will soon want to forget.

A calamitous error from Green let the USA back into the game. A speculative shot from Dempsey should have been dealt with easily but the keeper let the ball slip from his cluthces and roll over the goalline. A disaster for the team that has had to deal with high-profile goalkeeping errors in the recent past.