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 ...
Sometimes a bad call is just a bad call.
Well said but there is a mentality of going to battle in the World Cup.
I've always said it's nations at war without guns.
But you don't want to see any real violence just passionate footie.
Let's all be nice. We've had some great times here since the tournament started. I'd like to see all the fans remain friends here but at the same time you can see that prejudices and some harsh words get thrown around a bit too casually.
Feel the love.
But there are still Germans (and I know several) who feel they were cheated by the 1966 decision on Hurst's goal. In that case England was not cheated.
Every year there is at least one or two referee's decisions that totally screw a country and a couple more that are questionable. The question is whether they are honest mistakes or deliberate attempts to influence the result.
IMHO I think most of the time referees are honest if not always right. However, with the scandal erupting in Italy we really don't know.
The World Cup would be ruined if scandal overcame fair play. I hope that never happens. The game can survive honest mistakes; corruption and match-fixing will do incredible damage.
Hey easy there killer. Can we all just lighten up a bit. Let's enjoy the games.
Okay I'm calling for a timeout then.
Shevchenko and Ukraine are about to take the field. :)
I think you are absolutely right and want to believe that honest mistakes are made. But FIFA should under no circumstances put a corrupted official on the pitch.
That Uruguay ref should never have been officiating a WC match. Period.
And Germany's highly rated ref sure made a terrible call against the US yesterday, no matter the reason.
I can't imagine the mess that is going to come out of Italy. It sounds bad, real bad.
The sausage eaters have had more dodgy decisions against us than we have had against them.
The Azerbaijani linesman was indeed kind to us in 1966. However, don't forget Hurst scored ANOTHER goal so we may have won 3-2 anyway instead of 4-2.
Exactly. And sometimes referees might be biased -- maybe just a bit, but biased.
As an example: Suppose that there was an young obnoxious rich dude owner that loudly and publicly denounced the officials, got in their faces, questioned their judgement, and refused to stop despite continuous large fines from the Commissioner. Now, is there a slight poosibility that maybe one or two of the officials, who have been in the in the league for decades, might resent this owner? And, if so, might it just slightly influence a key call? Is there ANY chance that just one official might decide to fix that owner's wagon?
Bottom line is that it's never smart to make enemies of officials who are in a position to screw you over.
Good luck to the Ukraine. I am a new Sheva fan, as he has joined my team Chelsea, making us one of the most feared teams in the world!
You should send your post to Mark Cuban.
Attended a wedding in London in 2000. Had the honor of seeing Chelsea in person as the hotel staff were able to get me a ticket. When the groom heard I had made the match he asked why I didn't tell him. I said he you are here to be married and I don't think the new wife would want you off to it.
He said she wanted to go too. :)
Good match and to feel the unity and spirit of the fans for the club was great.
Next season's team is going to be awesome. I'm not sure what the latest is with Crespo but he might rethink his decision to go back to Italy with all the corruption charges being levied against the Serie A teams.
A front line of Drogba, Shevchenko and Crespo would be amazing. And we have a midfield of Cole, Lampard, Ballack, Essien, Makelele etc - not to mention Duff and Robben on the wing.
Mark Cuban? Who mentioned him? ;)
How did any Englishman make so much money that they could afford to buy all of those players?
I guess if having Real Chelsea owned by the Russian mob gets you wins, it's OK. Eventually even that owner will get tired of pumping money out to buy more "galacticos" in London.
“That says less about how bad the officiating was and more about how disgusting it is that a newspaper would openly support thugs.”
Entirely true. Whoever printed Urs Meier’s number (I think it was his) was a rank embarrassment to the country. I think it was The Sun but I’m not 100% sure.
Anyway, come on Schevchenko. My fantasy team needs some points.
Hopefully, Abramavich will sell the team to the Italian Mafia and we will get all the best Serie A players too.
By the way anybody else who wants to send an official complaint about the ref Merk can do so at this link:
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/fwc06/cgi_feedback
I sent my complaint to "Games related comments".
I also sent a complaint to the German soccer association (DFB) but they said they are not in charge and referred me to Fifa so there is no point in going that route.
To you Englishmen posting from the gay bar in London, you can probably find a poster of Merk on Ebay.
Don’t worry, Fulham will beat Chelsea again!
In all seriousness, there will be unrest at Chelsea next season. Maybe not enough for them to lose the league but there are going to be too many good players warming the bench.
The question is whether the other teams can steer clear of injuries and apply the necessary pressure.
Our man soccer_maniac has started today's thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1654292/posts
Hi Charlie Brown! I'm in New York but thanks for thinking of me. I somehow didn't think it would be long before you crawled back on to the thread, despite your claims you were leaving for good.
Which 4 games in your opinion?
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