Am I right in believing that in recent World Cups, the USA's record is at least as good as England's? On form over the past year, the USA did better against both Spain and Brazil than England did - and that is the yardstick. As I pointed out in the other thread, the USA will go into the game with more time to acclimatise to the altitude and with players who have not been playing up to the last minute in all competitions. They will almost certainly have a better goalkeeper. England should still have enough talent to beat them - but we had better not get complacent. I hope that both teams go through to the second round. If it means England get Germany, so be it. You can not win the World Cup - or even make a credible challenge - unless you can stand up to that sort of opposition. Germany will probably be very difficult to beat, but England should have enough talent on display to give them a game - and so should the USA come to that.