I’d like for someone to convince me that the United States isn’t completely fucked in the World Cup. I watched our game, and then I watched Ghana/Italy… and judging from yesterday’s performances, we’re not close to any of these teams. If we played Ghana yesterday, they’d have destroyed us. The United States is the Arizona Cardinals of Group E.
I’m just looking for reasons to believe here. Someone who knows more about soccer… please, if you can, give me a reason to believe that we can get the full three points against Italy. Maybe the Czechs were a bad matchup for us, because of their size and physical strength. Maybe we’ll do better against a more skill-oriented team like Italy. Or maybe we’ll find our confidence and grow up, and stop the practice of getting the ball across midfield, and then being like, “DERRRRR, here’s the ball, you ugly Czech fuck.” We avoided the box yesterday like we were A.C. Green.
Or, you know… maybe we just suck. I don’t think we’re as bad as we played yesterday, and I don’t think we’re kidding ourselves by saying that we can at least compete with a team like the Czechs. But I see very little reason to believe that we’re going to even get close to advancing out of our group. I would love to be convinced otherwise.
Nils
I’m sorry, but I can’t imagine how the USA can dig themselves out of that hole. I’ve seen all games so far, and besides Angola, the US were the worst team out there. They have some good players, but they just don’t know how to play football. Tactical the poorest performance in the tournament.
June 13, 2006 at 3:47 am
buddy
That’s it!!! U.S. soccer moms need to stop breeding.
June 13, 2006 at 8:54 am
Jon
I wouldn’t count them out quite yet. They were seriously overmatched against the Czech, who play a style they are not very good at (as displayed against Germany in 02 and in a recent friendly). Against Italy, the US will change their line up and have the more aggressive Johnson and McBride up front and push Donovan back to the midfield. You forget that the US did control the ball for the majority of the game yesterday they just didn’t know what to do with it. Against the overrated Italians, they will.
June 13, 2006 at 9:10 am
danks
There are plenty of situations that can get us through, but nothing will matter if WE DON’T LEARN HOW TO NOT SUCK. These teams willall blow us out of the water if we don’t wake up
The Czechs are the best team in the group, no doubt. They have the best attack by far.
We will match up better with the Italians if Arena takes his skirt off and goes with more of an offensive attack. With Johnson and McBride up front and Donovan and Denpsey behind, there is no question there will be plenty of chances aganst the Italians and Ghana. The Italians also don’t have the crazy attack hat the Czechs have, and if Totti is unfit, they willsuffer in the midfield.
Down but not out…yet.
June 13, 2006 at 10:01 am
Moonshine Mike
Actually MJD we had some good ball control and we passed with aplomb. But I agree we dinked and dunked when we should of been firing away from 20-30 ft. Let loose motherfuckers!
they needed to be spanked in public, and they got it big time
June 13, 2006 at 10:25 am
the mighty mjd
If that was passing with aplomb, I would hate to see poor passing…
June 13, 2006 at 11:01 am
Blogsy McBlog
France has Dustin Hoffman from “I Heart Huckabees” as its coach. Anything is possible.
June 13, 2006 at 2:09 pm
Don Paco
Sorry guys, but the US is simply overmatched in this groups. Terrible draw – the only tougher group is the one with Argentina and Holland.
Team USA would have done much better in any other group, but the Czechs are one of the top 5 teams in the world right now, and the Italians are just as good as them. I can’t see the US getting more than a win vs. Ghana.
Italy and the Czech Republic are simply too good for the level of players the US has now. Unlike four years ago, where team USA had a creampuff schedule, they just had a bad, bad draw here.
June 13, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Reverend
One thing to remember is that soccer games have a certain narrrative (I posted abouthtis on Deadspin). It is quite possible that the US team would not have played like that but not for the quick goal. Now, I’m not trying to sound stupid–I know it sounds like I’m saying, “If CR hadn’t scored more, the US could have tied.” But what I mean is that play folows a certain continuity, and certain orders of events can greatly effect play. Soccer isn’t really like, say, baseball, where a club plays like a different team one inning to the next–it’s much more path dependent.
The example I would cite is the US team’s trashing of Portugal last tourney. Now, Portugal was the better team. But the US out played them and got a 5-2 victory on account of scoring early which sent Portugal into disarray. An early goal can mess up the conditions such that you really don’t know what the team would look like under other conditions; it’s almost like watching a basketball star with the flu.
Basically, I’m not saying that the U.S. team is not the one we saw the other day. What I’m saying is, they might not be the team we saw the other day–they could be a better team in a different situation. Soccer’s like that. It’s part of why soccer can be so great: it’s not about being the better team, it’s about jumping out and going for the win–that’s why they play the game.
June 13, 2006 at 8:42 pm
fetal_wonder
Soccer moms may need to actually stop reproducing. But that shouldn’t stop some of them from still, you know, practicing. And videotaping it.
As for the US team’s performance, it was like the Czechs knew that we couldn’t string together enough good passes to actually get a decent scoring opportunity. Kind of like a “bend-but-don’t-break” defense in the NFL designed to make a team have to put together a 10-play drive to score, knowing that the offense will eventually punt or turn it over. And we did the latter with “aplomb.”
June 13, 2006 at 10:35 pm
Edward
I agree with Joel Achenbach’s comment in the Washington Post…the US made a major tactical error, in that they played against a far, far superior team.
I think the US would be lucky to grab a point from this group. But hey, best of luck to you…and it at least means no one’s mentioned that whole “#5 in the world” thing lately.
June 14, 2006 at 1:25 am
heath
I gotta finsky right here that says Ghana upsets the United States. Lock it.
June 14, 2006 at 3:38 am
kurtrambis
I had the same thought watching Italy-Ghana — the US will go down to Ghana, maybe badly.
But more importantly, nice AC Green reference (although I was a little slow…I was like “he was a great rebounder” [loved the box] and then I remembered “oh, the other box.” High props, if that is still the way to say it.
June 14, 2006 at 6:03 pm