USA 1 Italy 1
What did I say earlier?
What did I say before the World Cup started?
USA has not scored a goal so far this World Cup. In fact, the USA has not even had a shot on goal yet. You can't advance if you can't score. Simple as that.
That being said, though, we showed a hell of a lot more heart this game than last. Our midfield played like the excellent midfield I thought prior to the WC would show up. We dominated the first half in the midfield. And we played great after Pope was sent off. Playing with 9 men for 45 minutes? Amazing. Moreover, they even had some goal scoring chances, although at the end it was clear they were to exhausted to send more than 2 guys forward. (BTW - yeah the ref was horrid, but what's the point of complaining?)
Some notes:
McBrides's offside - legit. However, there were quite a few other offsides that were incorrectly called (esp against the Italians).
Beasley still looked bad - regardless of the disallowed goal. He was afraid to go at people. I wouldn't play him any more.
Keller finally had a great save on del Piero's nice volley. Good for him to finally make one of the plays we expected him to make.
Why was Johnson not used? He was the best player in game 1, and McBride was done by about the 80th minute. The only thing I can speculate is that McBride is very good at tracking back and playing defense - and I suppose Arena wanted him in for that purpose. But you would think that Johnson could have taken advantage of some tired Italian defenders.
Atmosphere was great. You've got to love American fans shouting "BULL-SHIT!" so loud that you can hear it on TV. And the American fans shown on TV at the end making the international hand sign for a dive? Great!
In all, a great, great game. We played with so much heart, and there was a lot of flow back and forth. The end of the game was absolutely gripping - the clock hardly seemed to move.
In the end, with Ghana's win, we are still alive. A win and an Italy win, and we're through, which is pretty unfathomable. But the question has to be - can we score a goal? On paper, we should be able to past them, but who knows. This group is obviously the group of death, more than Group C. I doubt there will be another group where, after 2 games, no team is eliminated and no team is through.
They may attack, but can they score a goal? I'm doubting it.
What did I say before the World Cup started?
We will have trouble scoring.
USA has not scored a goal so far this World Cup. In fact, the USA has not even had a shot on goal yet. You can't advance if you can't score. Simple as that.
That being said, though, we showed a hell of a lot more heart this game than last. Our midfield played like the excellent midfield I thought prior to the WC would show up. We dominated the first half in the midfield. And we played great after Pope was sent off. Playing with 9 men for 45 minutes? Amazing. Moreover, they even had some goal scoring chances, although at the end it was clear they were to exhausted to send more than 2 guys forward. (BTW - yeah the ref was horrid, but what's the point of complaining?)
Some notes:
McBrides's offside - legit. However, there were quite a few other offsides that were incorrectly called (esp against the Italians).
Beasley still looked bad - regardless of the disallowed goal. He was afraid to go at people. I wouldn't play him any more.
Keller finally had a great save on del Piero's nice volley. Good for him to finally make one of the plays we expected him to make.
Why was Johnson not used? He was the best player in game 1, and McBride was done by about the 80th minute. The only thing I can speculate is that McBride is very good at tracking back and playing defense - and I suppose Arena wanted him in for that purpose. But you would think that Johnson could have taken advantage of some tired Italian defenders.
Atmosphere was great. You've got to love American fans shouting "BULL-SHIT!" so loud that you can hear it on TV. And the American fans shown on TV at the end making the international hand sign for a dive? Great!
In all, a great, great game. We played with so much heart, and there was a lot of flow back and forth. The end of the game was absolutely gripping - the clock hardly seemed to move.
In the end, with Ghana's win, we are still alive. A win and an Italy win, and we're through, which is pretty unfathomable. But the question has to be - can we score a goal? On paper, we should be able to past them, but who knows. This group is obviously the group of death, more than Group C. I doubt there will be another group where, after 2 games, no team is eliminated and no team is through.
posted by Al at 10:43 AM
1 Comments:
i share the belief that beasley has had his chance, but my guess during the later stages of the match as to why arena didn't bring johnson on is that the US was in an excellent team defensive groove, and why risk messing it up?
The Ghana victory over Czech republic was so dominating, though, that i'm dubious that the US can beat them on Thursday.
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