LANDON DONOVAN wanted to see David Beckham's face. The cameras were fixed on the actress Charlize Theron, so America's best-known native footballer could not quite gauge the instant response of America's most famous football employee to the prospect of England versus the USA.
Donovan was in the US watching on television as the draw for the World Cup group phase was made, while Beckham was on stage in Cape Town, but, at the key moment, the latter was off camera. "I wish we could have gotten a shot of his face directly as it happened," said Donovan, "but I'm sure he was thinking the same thing as me, that this will be pretty interesting." Donovan and Beckham are teammates at Los Angeles Galaxy of the Major Soccer League, or at least they are when Beckham is not playing for Milan.
There have been times when the relationship has strained over Beckham's captaincy of the Californian club - Donovan had the armband and then Beckham had it and then Donovan had it again - and the Englishman's diversity of commitments.
At least that's how events in Beckham's first 18 months in America were reported, quoting Donovan. The relationship is now good, both players maintain, but that fissure is likely to be revisited now that the pair will be in opposition for Group C's opening fixture. "I'm sure the media coverage of that game will get pretty intense," said Donovan. "But it will be a lot of fun. Our job is, obviously, to try to stay insulated and just worry about the team. But the idea of playing England is very exciting, especially in our first game."
The tendency is to caricature the US as a difficult, struggling convert to the world's most popular game. That may not be fully accurate, but football in America has a strong English inheritance. "We all know there are a lot of Brits, and especially English people, in America," said Donovan. "Those of us who grew up around soccer know that you didn't grow up playing without being influenced at some point by someone who was British."
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Bob Bradley, the US coach, said: "The US against England will be a game that has tremendous interest across the country and it will be a big TV event. We have a lot of fans in the US who follow the Premier League and US players who play in it. That sets it up very well." He is encouraged by the shape and form of a side who finished second at the Confederations Cup in South Africa in July, even if they have suffered the probable loss of striker Charlie Davies, badly hurt in a car accident.
US teams have scored some notable triumphs over seeded teams at World Cups. Famously, they beat England 1-0 in 1950. Gleefully, they scored three times against Portugal within 35 minutes of their opener in Korea in 2002. Painfully, they shared a draw featuring three red cards against Italy three years ago. Did Bradley imagine anything as rugged against England? "When big teams play, it's always going to be a hard, tough game," he said. "Any time a player like Wayne Rooney steps on the field, you must pay attention to him. You must be ready to compete with him. He's a tremendous battler on the field, a tremendous competitor."
THE USA
World ranking: 14
World Cup record: 1930 3rd, 1934 R1, 1950 R1, 1990 R1, 1994 R2, 1998 R1, 2002 QF, 2006 R1
Manager: Bob Bradley
Familiar faces: Howard (Everton), Guzan (Aston Villa), Hahnemann (Wolves), Spector (West Ham), DeMerit (Watford), Beasley (Rangers), Dempsey (Fulham), Johnson (Fulham), Altidore (Hull City) Starting XI: Howard, Spector, Bocanegra (Rennes), Onyewu (AC Milan), Bornstein (Chivas USA), Bradley (Borussia Monchengladbach), Holden (Houston Dynamo), Donovan (LA Galaxy), Clark (Houston Dynamo), Casey (Colarado Rapids), Davies (Sochaux)
Their anthem should be: A Few Words in Defence of Our Country by Randy Newman
Odds: 66-1
TWO QUESTIONS FOR...
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BOB BRADLEY US COACH
What are England's prospects in the group and beyond?
"England play hard and tough and we must be ready to match that. When you look at all those top teams, to be drawn to play England in the first game is a big challenge but also a very exciting challenge."
How will you set about causing an upset?
"We are a team that work hard. We are team that has a good idea of the sort of mentality we need on the field. We have tried to find a good balance between attacking and defending. It is a team that has grown in the last four years. The Confederations Cup helped us. All of that prepares us."
The day England fell to the USA
If any England player feels complacent after Friday's draw, they need only seek out Sir Tom Finney to be reminded of the World Cup's greatest upset. On June 29, 1950, at the Estedio Independencia in Brazil, 39 minutes into what was supposed to be a routine victory for England over the United States, Haitian-born Joe Gaetjens wrongfooted England keeper Bert Williams with a headed deflection off teammate Walter Bahr's shot. 'We had a wonderful team, some said the best in the world at the time,' Finney said. 'There were no excuses. We took it for granted. We were beaten by our own complacency.'
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The England side failed to break down an American team of teachers, a dishwasher and a hearse driver. At the end, Gaetjens was carried off the pitch to the roar of 30,000 ecstatic Brazilians. A shell-shocked England would stumble to defeat and elimination by Spain in their final group game.
Gaetjens, who had been studying accounting in the US on a Haitian government scholarship, was not political but his family worked for Louis Dejoie, a 1957 presidential rival to Haitian dictator François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier. Gaetjens' mother and a brother were arrested after Papa Doc's victory and most of his family fled the country. But, according to his brother Jean-Pierre, speaking in 1998, Gaetjens stayed behind in Haiti. When his brother returned after the fall of Papa Doc's son in 1986, he was told of a massacre at the notorious Fort Dimanche prison, where Gaetjens had been held in the 1950s because of his family's dissident views. 'They killed everybody at Fort Dimanche,' a prison guard told his brother.