Posted on 06/21/2006 10:33:27 PM PDT by soccer_maniac
The U.S. national team goes into Thursday's Group E finale against Ghana (9:55 a.m. ET, ESPN) knowing that it must come up with a win to have any chance of moving to the Round of 16.
All four teams in Group E, including the USA, still have a chance to advance. The U.S. must beat a tough Ghana side to have any chance of moving to the knockout phase. Should Bruce Arena's team be able to secure three points against the Africans, whom they meet at 9:55 a.m. ET on ESPN, they will need Italy to beat the Czech Republic in a simultaneous match, which can be seen live on ESPN2. The U.S. is not mathematically eliminated with a Czech draw or win, but will need a big victory over Ghana to avoid being eliminated on goal difference.
(Excerpt) Read more at mlsnet.com ...
Our team looks like a bunch of pipsqueaks out there. We need bigger, more physical players.
You can be proud of the US-Italy match! That was an impressive fight! I didn´t see the Ghana match, but during the Italy-Czech game, I was hoping when the US scored 1-1 and Italy lead against the Czechs. The plaza where I watched the game was crowded with Italians, a great atmosphere. I felt sorry for the few nice Czech girls... :-)
Steve Cherundolo
Oguchi Onyewu
and Gregg Berhalter
That would require a fundamental shift away from the American soccer establishment's PC notion that soccer is the most "democratic" sport where players don't have to be big, strong, and intimidating like football players.
I know from firsthand experience that teams of big, fast, less talented American players can and do beat teams of 140lb, skillful ballerinas.
It ain't real democratic....it's just reality.
We need to find ten times the teenagers we currently ship off to Bradenton and let professional teams develop them much earlier.
Maybe he can train both teams? He´s so often travelling between both countries, satire magazins made a world cup plan for him:
June 8th, 8 pm BBQ with the Waltons neighbours
June 9th, 6 am flying to Germany, arriving 6 pm, opening ceremony, then game against Costa Rica
June 10th, 8 am flying to CA, going out for dinner with the kids
June 13th flying to Germany, damn, why the f°°° shall I train that team? Joachim can do that for me!
June 14th playing against Poland, a few hours until I´ll be back home!! :-)
June 14th 11 pm airport Frankfurt, flying back
June 20th 6 am, gotta travel back to Germany for the last time.
8 pm, we´re out of the contest, finally. Well, need to get a new job, but at least I can stay in CA for a while :-D
I was rolling on the floor laughing when I read it!!
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/schedule.html
you can click for the video highlights of every match at this page....this is a very cool feature.
Full marks to Ghana, even though they played dirty vs USA, they did what they had to do. No one picked them to progress, as far as I can recall. Certainly not ahead of the Czechs and the Americans.
Have you been listening to the XM Radio coverage at night...there are a lot of soccer camps etc coming into existence....it has really been informative.
Oh I think Klinsi is going to be making a few more trips back to Germany before July 9th.
Meanwhile, England look a good bet to make the semi-final where they will face a below par Brazil team.
Germany may scrape into the quarter final but Argentina are the best team in their half of the draw. A pity, as it would be satisfying to destroy the Germans again in a world final to make it two world wars and two world cups (which is more symetrical.)
"The worst part is the finality of it," said midfielder Landon Donovan, a playmaker who failed to score in this World Cup after getting two goals as a 20 year old in 2002. "Even during the game, you don't get the sense this is it. Then the whistle blows and it's over."
HELLOOOO? Earth to Landon. Why did you not have that idea FIRMLY in your head before the match started? This was do-or-die, not some throw away match in Rochester.
Same here checked twice on the sky news and nothing on Serie A.
I knew the family growing up. Soccer was an extremely popular sport at that school, and a lot of great athletes came out of it.
Landon was horrible, late in the game, he had the ball alone on the right side of the box with an open shot, he passed it back towards the middle, right to a Ghana defender. He sucks.
Based on your tag line, I see you're looking for a new job.
Bruce is the one who brought US soccer to respect.
He deserves a chance to sort things out.
Funky, funky, I am a junkie. I'll be depressed when the tournament ends.
No joke. I get the blues every time. Except in Paris. When I got back from France, I picked up every newspaper in NYC and all of them had the WC on the back pages.
I was buzzing on that all day. What a party that was. Only time you can climb the Bastille and not get arrested. What a sight.
8 years is enough, time for some new blood, preferable a European coach who has a better understanding of what it takes at this level.
TEAM LINE-UPS
Japan: Kawaguchi, Santos, Tsuboi, Kaji, Nakazawa, Hidetoshi Nakata, Ogasawara, Nakamura, Inamoto, Maki, Tamada.
Subs: Doi, Endo, Fukunishi, Komano, Moniwa, Koji Nakata, Narazaki, Oguro, Ono, Takahara, Yanagisawa.
Brazil: Dida, Lucio, Juan, Cicinho, Gilberto, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Silva, Juninho, Ronaldo, Robinho.
Subs: Adriano, Cafu, Carlos, Cris, Emerson, Fred, Julio Cesar, Luisao, Mineiro, Ricardinho, Rogerio, Ze Roberto.
Referee: Eric Poulat (France)
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