In a match against heavily favored England, the U.S. National Soccer team didn’t mind ‘kissing its sister.’

A major goalkeeping gaffe allowed the Americans to score their only goal in the match, which ended in a 1-1 tie in the World Cup opener for each team.

England struck early in the match.  Emile Heskey assisted Steven Gerard for the first and only goal for the British, coming with just four minutes expired in the contest.  But for the remainder of the day, the U.S. played brilliant team defense against English superstar Wayne Rooney.  As the match continued, Rooney attempted to thwart the American defense by moving closer to midfield – but it was to no avail and Rooney actually began to lose his composure a bit in the process.

About five minutes before the break, the U.S. caught a big break.  On a somewhat desperate, defense-closing shot from Clint Dempsey, the unthinkable happened.  English goalkeeper Robert Green tried to play the ball off of both hands, but he failed to secure it.  The ball, which was rolling at a snail’s pace, bounced off of Green’s right hand and slowly trickled past him into the net. 

Howard is no stranger to the British; he's played in the English Premier League.

From then forward, U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard kept the English advantage at 1-0 by making some key saves.  Due to his extraordinary effort, Howard was named the ‘Man of the Match.’  Howard made some outstanding saves on a few different one-on-one opportunities for the British.  With the American defense shutting down the English attack, the underdogs still had the arduous task of putting at least one score on the board.  Several shot attempts were off the mark and failed to pose a real threat to landing into the net.

England was noticeably stunned by this turn of events – they truly didn’t expect to be in a dogfight late in this match.  Both teams weathered the offensive blitzes attempted by their opponent in the waning minutes to keep the game knotted at 1-1.

With the U.S, earning a tie and gaining perhaps an unexpected point in the Group C standings, they are in a better position to advance from this bracket (which also contains Slovenia and Algeria).  England will need to recover from the shocking draw if they are to play like the superpower that they were anticipated to be.

So, the U.S. will try to expand upon Green’s generous gift to make some noise in the tourney.

And they’ll worry about their sister’s lipstick a little later.