| Well, think again. Making his competitive debut for the | | | | for Scotland, leaked an incredible seven goals and |
| England national team on 21 November 2007, Carson | | | | never played for the national squad again. Forward to |
| committed a schoolboy error in the 20th minute by | | | | 2000 where promising Ipswich Town's Richard Wright |
| allowing a speculative 20m drive from Portsmouth's | | | | made his England debut against minnows Malta also at |
| Niko Kranjcar to slip into the net. | | | | age 22. Foolishly, he gave away two penalties and |
| And with that, England's hopes of reaching next | | | | topped it by scoring an own goal. He went on to |
| year's European Finals went up in smoke. England | | | | secure a prized move to Arsenal but performed |
| eventually lost 2-3 to Croatia with some slack | | | | unsteadily. Presently, he is languishing in the West |
| defending and marked their first Finals | | | | Ham reserves when he should have peaked as a |
| non-appearance since 1984. | | | | keeper of his age. |
| Born in 1985, the young 22-year old Carson was | | | | England's failure to secure a single point against |
| pushed to guard the goalmouth as Tottenham's Paul | | | | Croatia that would have booked them a ticket to the |
| Robinson faded into obscurity following a drastic dip | | | | Euro 2008 Finals has impacted the country in more |
| in form in both domestic and international soccer | | | | than one way. |
| fronts. Bought by Liverpool from Leeds Utd after the | | | | First, they immediately fell to 12th in Fifa's world |
| latter's disastrous financial woes were exposed, | | | | rankings and 10th in Europe after defending European |
| Carson was however never able to move ahead of | | | | champions Greece leapfrogged them. This implies that |
| current Liverpool number one Jose Reina. | | | | England will not be one of the nine seeded European |
| Constantly warming the bench and facing the likely | | | | teams for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers; rather, they |
| prospects of not making to the England squad, | | | | are regrouped together with Croatia in qualifying |
| Carson made a loan switch to Aston Villa this season | | | | Group F. Note that only the group winners |
| where he impressed with a series of fine | | | | automatically qualify for a trip to South Africa, making |
| performances and clean sheets. | | | | the job of the new England manager even tougher. |
| But to be fair to Carson, his four defenders | | | | Second, the economic fall-out is heavy with the |
| protecting him should not be absolved. Veteran | | | | British economy expected to lose up to £1b |
| Portsmouth defender Sol Campbell was a pale | | | | due to England's elimination. This conclusion was |
| shadow of his usual robustness while Everton's | | | | derived from an examination of the economic impact |
| fullback Jolean Lescott was out-of-sorts playing with | | | | of Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006 Finals. We can all |
| Campbell in central defence. Manchester City's | | | | but expect a drastic drop in advertising revenue and |
| rightback Micah Richards gave a raw performance | | | | consumer spending next summer. |
| which is below par and Chelsea's leftback Wayne | | | | Undoubtedly, Carson's name will not go down well in |
| Bridge played listlessly to expose Carson in conceding | | | | history. Thankfully, soccer fans are in general |
| the second goal. | | | | notorious for being capricious, spitting their anger on |
| In 135 years of international soccer for the English, | | | | every other fall guy on the pitch. And so it won't be |
| Carson's debut performance ranks among the worst. | | | | long before the next Carson comes along. Or will the |
| But is it really that bad? Consider the following | | | | English get their revenge against Croatia come late |
| goalkeeping incidents: in 1878 Conrad Warner debuted | | | | next year? |