What happened to Beasley, where is his aggressivness? If he is going to whiff, get him out of there. We need attackers, creators. Got to hand it to the Czech republic, they pack it in and explode out....nothing but counter attacks once you are spread out.... Also we gave the danged ball away...ALL the time, as Sam said, we looked JV out there. Swoly, this is exactly why strength of group matters, big difference in playing Iran vs Czech republic, if you struggle against Iran, you probably still win, and have time to get your act together, when you struggle against Czech or Italy etc, you get thumped. Dang...totally dissappointed.... DD
Close enough ... those 'I' countries are all alike anyway. (half-Italian) It's taking many years, but our first 'soccer' generations probably don't have too many kids 'of-age' yet. Ultimately some of our 'athletes' will start to choose soccer over the baseball/basketball/football tirumvirate. I expect that our early competitive teams will prob be the ones most enjoyable to watch because they will be there purely for the love of the sport. I'd prefer though if we were under-rated though. I'm an older member here, but soccer was not even an option when I was a kid. Cool, good luck to the Dutch.
They might not even advance then, if Italy beats the Czech republic. We almost have to win against Italy and Ghana and get 6 points, and it would be nice to win big against one of them, like 4-0 or something, as if teams are tied, Goal differntial is how ties are broken. That last goal we gave up was a KILLER !! But if we win the next 2 we should have a good shot of getting through, but that probably means we face Brazil... What the USA has to do is reach down and see if they have a pair and play aggressive, creative soccer.....got to get chances. DD
The Italy - Ghana game is very important. we need the teams to draw, so that we have a chance to progress. IF Italy wins Ghana and us are 3 points behind the Czechs and the italians and we have to play the italians in the next game which will not be easy. We rather would be down only 1 point to either Ghana or Italy going in to are next game. So let's all cheer for a draw or a ghana win so that Italy will be in the same boat we're in.
arno_ed, I didn't answer your question waaaaay back in the 16th or 18th page... YES, I am happy. This is the fourth time in a row Mexico opens a World Cup with a win. (there goes some trivia question for later) You ask DD like he's the only one who knows... Other countries have gone past the first round after losing the first. Many have gone forth with losing one. At least ONE GROUP that I know of in '94 went 1-1-1 for all teams, with Mexico on top, because of goal differential. This means that U.S. has to beat someone 3+ at least once to get the first place, but it looks difficult with the CZechs already up 3+ (or easier with Koller out?). Estados Unidos better beat the African country 4-0 or at least 2-0 to have a great chance at 2nd place for next round. It looks iffy, though.
We're the US! We think we're the best at everything, except soccer. This game was hyped up so much, and now I'm very disappointed.
I was hearing ABC commentators saying how US should take notes of Holland's playing style, how to contail Jankoller etc. I was like shoot, over confident. Make no mistake about, the only way US could possibly beat Cech was pack in and play ugly defensive ball. That was the only way. I am sorry, it's sad but that's truth. We've got some speedy guys, defensive counter attack suits us best.
We didn't even bother to show up. The worst performance I've seen out of an American team since Arena took over after the 1998 World Cup. No excuses, the Czechs were the much better team today. We now have to win our next two matches to advance, and mass changes need to be made to the line up. Beasley's been in awful form for the last six months, and really shouldn't be on the field, let alone on the right side. Donovan needs to play behind two strikers (McBride and Johnson).
In the qualifying stage we (the dutch) beat the czech twice. It is strange for us dutch to hear people talk about dutch playing style as defensive and ugly, Because we were always famous for our beautiful style, however we never won it all. so maybe both has changed. The US has a difficult group(the only group that is more difficult is the dutch group), so it will be very difficult for them to advance. I really hope they will(i really dislike The italians).
Hey Arno_ed, the commentators were saying that the U.S. should play the open, controlled-possession style that the Dutch played because they completely dominated in order to beat the Czechs. They did not say that the Dutch played ugly. The person that posted on here said that the US should have played ugly to be in game. I laughed when I heard the commentators say that the US should play like the dutch b/c they are not in the same class yet. My bro is heading to Holland on Thursday...wish I were in Europe now How's the atmosphere in Holland? Must be amazing over there. Here, we get coverage of horse racing, stereoids in baseball, tennis, poker and other meaningless things before soccer. very sad
An emphatic YES, we need guys who can create opportunities, Landon and O'brien are the 2 best along with Reyna....get em in there. DD
If they Tie that would be good for the US, got to keep Italy so that if we beat them the most they could get is 4 points. DD
