Fabio Capello refuses to blame Robert Green for gifting shock equaliser to US

England manager Fabio Capello has refused to blame goalkeeper Robert Green for the horrendous mistake which cost the Three Lions victory in their opening World Cup game against underdogs USA.

Green fumbled US striker Clint Dempsey’s shot into England’s goal, allowing the Americans to equalise and manage to tie the Group C match 1-1.

“Sometimes keepers make mistakes, but that is football,” News of The World quoted Capello, as saying.

“Yes, he made a mistake, but the second half he played very well,” he added.

Capello further said that despite a negative result, he was satisfied with the performance of his players.

“We created a lot of chances to score goals and we played a good game. They scored one goal, but I was happy with the performance of the team and the next game will be better,” Capello said.

“Only the result was not positive. Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the middle played well, we had chances to score goals,” he added.

Capello now has six days to rally his troops before England’s second Group C clash against Algeria in Cape Town next Friday.