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I was doing the school run when I found out that England had drawn the US in their group at the World Cup. I had just enough time to send one tweet, one emoji, one pair of eyes. As if to say, “well, this is tricky.”
I think enough time has passed to look at my mistake in 2010 with good humor. It doesn’t define me as a person and it doesn’t define my career.
It would have been nice to say it was the only mistake I ever made – but it wasn’t!
Rob Green fumbled the ball during England’s 2-2 draw against the USA at the 2010 World Cup
Green said his friends and family had been “harassed” after his mistake at the tournament
You know immediately what went wrong when it happens. The ball hits your hand just in the wrong place, just inches from where it should have happened. That is the difference.
You get that gut-wrenching feeling, but you have to get through the next five minutes. The only thing worse than making one big mistake is making two. You have a process to mentally turn on and reset, a bit like batsmen do when they play a bad shot in cricket.
It’s not until you walk in at the end of the game that you realize its size. Only then do you realize it was a big mistake and the whole world is watching.
I was disappointed, but as a goalkeeper you know that things like this happen every now and then. You make mistakes in your career. You just try to keep them as far apart as possible.
Green also admitted that the media had made the mistake, which was not that big, “over-sensational.”
Green was disappointed that Fabio Capello (pictured) criticized him after the fumble happened
Fabio Capello pulled me over the night before the next game and said it was too big a mistake. I said I’m ready to play and he replied “well you’re not.” That was a huge disappointment. You make such a rare mistake once every six months, if so.
The mistake itself was not as important to me as it was to everyone else. How it got over-sensitized in the media.
I was disappointed in how my friends and family were treated. It was one of the few games my parents missed, they later flew to the World Cup. They went for a walk one day and got a message: ‘Don’t come home, you can’t go in, your house is surrounded’. I had friends who were harassed at work. These were just people going about their daily lives.
Social media was not as big as it is now. You could turn off your phone and get away from it all. It’s a very, very different existence now.
He admitted that the criticism of a mistake on this tournament is over much faster
But if one of the guys makes a mistake in Qatar, the way the world works now, it’s over a lot quicker. Everyone sees every game, it will come up, but people move on very quickly.
For me it was something I lived with and moved on. Since I’ve retired, it’s not something that has stuck in my past. It’s something that happened in a football game. Everyone in their career tries to give their best and sometimes things happen, but that’s life.
England has three good keepers in shape in Qatar. Jordan Pickford has been at Everton for a number of years and staying in the Premier League will depend on whether he plays well often. He knows how to handle that kind of pressure and he handles it well. He brings something with his distribution that the England team relies on.
Green admits that Gareth Southgate (right) is very good at communicating with his team
Nick Pope has made great strides at Newcastle and Aaron Ramsdale’s meteoric rise has been incredible. Relegated twice and then on to Arsenal. His character, his temperament and his technique have improved. He plays in big games and keeps a clean sheet in a top Premier League team.
It’s healthy competition. It is also healthy that they know their respective places and are well communicated.
We didn’t. In South Africa we had myself, David James and Joe Hart. We were all used to playing and didn’t know who the first pick was. That’s difficult because you don’t know how to prepare.
Green also compared the current squad to the 2010 squad, which was disjointed by comparison
Gareth is very good at communicating. I don’t think we have that specifically. It is always important for a keepers association to know your role. That was a difficult factor for us and this group is right.
There are many differences between this team and ours. It’s a pretty steady team. In 2010 we had players who came out of retirement, players who were asked to come out of retirement and didn’t, players who got injured in the warm-up games, players who got injured in the training sessions. It was a very disjointed time.
The former England goalkeeper admitted he has high hopes for rising star Nick Pope (left)
What this group also has is a unity that has transcended football. As footballers, you are your own entity, so it’s hard to create a unity and create something that is greater than the sum of its parts.
It was great to see them take a stand. The causes they fought for and how they went about it to create change are a true testament to who they are as a group.
They have created something bigger than just a football team. It’s a long way from where we were.