Posted on 06/12/2006 5:28:43 AM PDT by soccer_maniac
The wait finally comes to an end Monday for 11 of the 15 MLS players at the 2006 World Cup as the U.S. national team opens Group E play against Czech Republic in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The Los Angeles Galaxy's Landon Donovan will lead the U.S. team into action starting at 11:55 a.m. ET on ESPN2.
In other action, Australia meets Japan in Kaiserslautern at 8:55 a.m. (ESPN2) for a Group F match. Italy and Ghana clash in the third match of the day, a Group E affair in Hanover at 2:55 p.m. (ESPN2).
(Excerpt) Read more at mlsnet.com ...
Ghana is the wildcard here with Essien, they might end up surprising people.
BTW, I am rooting for the Cariocas too.
I know he watched at the beginning and saw through where Koller went out (on the phone with Dad I heard him in the background yelling, "The big guy's out!"). Don't know when he got fed up and went to the pool, but I bet he didn't see the second half.
BTW, You've got a fairly urgent email needing a reply. I also asked you to call me and you didn't.
You know as Bill Parcells says, "You are what you are." This is where the US is right now, they are in that middle-tier of teams, capable of beating most teams in North America, but nowhere near the elite European teams.
Last year the second-string English team wiped the field with the US "A" team in Chicago.
Where is this email?
Well...there is "a guy" who made it with a chick from each sorority on his campus...back in THE DAY!@!
Heh, heh...ADP, GPB, KD, DZ, ChiO, DG, AZD...
USA! The USA decided NOT to play too hard today, since IF WE WON, we would have taken advantage of a SMALL COUNTRY, we would be accused of spreading VICTORY across the world and MAKING ENEMIES!!
So, by LOSING, we actually WON!!
G
"How could we be so outclassed when our players come from Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man U, Bayern Munich, Juventus, AC Milan, and Liverpool?"
Yer problem is they don't. Now I'm a Fulham fan and I like Brian McBride but even I'll admit Fulham aren't in that class.
LOL j/k
The jury is out on whether we actually are a world class team.
We got crushed in 1990. We squeaked through the first round in 1994 thanks in part to an own goal by a since-murdered Colombian, we were wiped out in 1998, and we surprised the Portugese with three goals in ten minutes in 2002 and then, outside of two goals against Mexico, our offense disappeared.
We have to get a result against the Italians.
I'm very frustrated. 3-0, worse than England v. Paraguay, Sweden v. T&T, or even Germany v. Costa Rica.
But the game is over, and it was pretty convincing evidence that the US is NOT #5 in the world. I couldn't figure out how we got that high anyway, with losing 1-0 against Morocco and managing only 1-0 against (not exactly a world power) Latvia.
We play like a brickmason lays bricks - very predictable buildup, no creativity, no flashes of brilliance. Way too methodical. This seems to be Arena's style. I don't enjoy watching it much, on the other hand it worked pretty well in 2002.
I also don't know why this article (and most others) make such a big deal out of Donovan. He's scoreless in something like 12 international games. McBride is far more dangerous - witness his goals for Fulham against Mu.
I hoped against the odds that we'd at least repeat the exciting play of the 1994 World Cup. Brazil were very lucky to have escaped with a 1-0 win, and might not have done so had they not cracked Ramos' skull (he was creating most of our chances at that point). Maybe we should bring back Multinovic!
Second in the group is likely to play Brazil in the 2nd round.
I counted three US players standing around in the 2nd goal from the top of the key. Lot of sloppy passing and "kick and run" plays. CZ was blazing fast, too; smoked our guys on sprints.
If they keep playing like they did today I'll be surprised if they score a single goal in this World Cup. The strategery of standing around and taking 35 yard shots every once in a while just isn't gonna cut it. I don't know what they were thinking trying to play like that.
The bottom line is that in 2002, we scored in the 4th minute against Portugal, this time we give up a goal in the 5th.
And as good as the US was in 2002, they still let a Polish team that was already eliminated, dominate them. They were lucky to get through.
The US team as is is built for one thing, beating Mexico. That's nice, but that alone won't get you very far in the World Cup, especially on the European continent.
Probably so. Perhaps it's because we start kids off young and we never keep score of the games so it doesn't hurt their "feelings" if they lose. Perhaps our team will have a BIG party after this 3-0 trouncing because they were trained to not care if they won or lost.
My problem is some people thought I was series. I'm well aware that Reading, Hannover 96, Borussia Monchengladbach, Fulham, etc. are not exactly threats to win their leagues. (OK, Reading won their league, but it wasn't the Premiership so let's see how they do there).
Guess you didn't see McBride score 2X against MU.
"We need the Czechs to win out, we control our destiny against Italy and Ghana, that's all that matters now. The fewer points for those two teams, the better."
Understood.
However my scenario works like this:
US beats Italy (which is usually a low scoring team) and Ghana. And Italy beats the Czechs and Ghana. And the Czechs lose to Ghana. Thereby putting the US and Italy through.
I come with this scenario on these grounds:
1. Czechs now have many yellow cards (from our destiny of having played them).
2. Czechs two strikers now look out on injury. (again one from our destiny of having played them).
3. Czech players are old.
4. The %$§&'s who beat us 3-0 in a World Cup match get shoved off to history ASAP.
Revenge is a dish best served in the World Cup, and when the Czechs go down I will be laughing at their "victory" over us.
Don't see how we could be built to be European or South American powers, not with our lack of talent compared to other nations.
We don't have one player remotely close to Michael Essien, for example, and Ghana is considered weak.
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