On This Day – 10th October
Eight months before his clanger against USA in the 2010, Robert Green made history by becoming the first England goalkeeper to be sent off.
The red card came on this day back in 2009 in a qualifier away to Ukraine. England had already qualified for the World Cup in South Africa before the match had even started, meaning the result was immaterial.
Green was establishing himself as England’s number one, playing in six of England’s ten matches in 2009.
He was in his third year at West Ham United and the future looked bright for him. The second choice goalkeeper at the time was David James, who had just turned 39 and with Green being ten years his junior, it looked as if the England jersey was his.
14 minutes into the match in Ukraine, Green was to be given his marching orders by Slovenia referee Damir Skomina.
A long ball punted forward towards Artim Milevskiy dropped over Rio Ferdinand’s head and the Dynamo Kiev striker ran through. Robert Green charged out of his goal and brought Milevskiy down on the penalty spot.
Andriy Shevchenko missed the resulting spot kick but his team Serhiy Nazarenko scored the only goal of the game on the half hour mark. The hosts held on to win the game 1-0 and secured second place in the Group Stage, a point ahead of Croatia who finished third.
Ukraine lost 1-0 on aggregate to Greece in a two legged play off match and so didn’t reach the World Cup Finals in South Africa.
England stuttered through the group stages and it was in their first game that Robert Green made a howler and let a weak shot from USA’s Clint Dempsey go through his hands into the back of the net. He lost his place to David James and wouldn’t play for England for nearly two years.
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