Saturday, June 17, 2006

USA v. Italy Open Thread

Put your remarks about the USA v. Italy game on this thread.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Italy scored already! Totti gets behind the USA defense in minute one and give Italy a one to nill lead. So long Yanks!

Kartik said...

Let the controversy begin. Eddie Johnson starts the game on the bench......we seem to be playing a defensive oriented lineup, with essentially two holding midfielders and 4 backs. Maybe we will rely on counterattacking, and hopefully McBride can find some space in defense.

No more longball also. Carlos Bocanegra is a threat going forward in the attack and could help cover for Bobby Convey on the left side.

Anonymous said...

Bad lineup. Way too defensive. Oh well, we will chat after the game.

Kartik said...

Our guys look focused.

Kartik said...

The red card on Pablo was criminal. sure he went in cleats up, but it certainly wasn't a red cardable offense. We now need to take advantage of the space of a 10 v 10 game. Eddie Johnson should be coming on to take advantage of the space.

Kartik said...

Pablo was one of our best players in the first half.....a horrible loss.

Kartik said...

We should be proud of our boys today. We gave all and the referee really cost us. We also owe Italy a thanks. They obviously lost their legs and didn't have the flair in midfield we have seen so often from Italy in the past. Both Toni and Totti were average and I loved the fire Landon Donovan showed today.

My man of the match is Gooch, who came up huge after Pope and Pablo were sent off. He frustrated Toni all day and Lippi finally pulled Toni.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure whether to be unhappy or proud. Our boys as you said Kartik, played with heart, guts and determination. But we lost two of our best players for the next game and really had the run of play but were unable to score a winner. Being down to 9 men versus 10 is less of a disadvantage than 10 against 11, because you still have space to operate and to stimulate a counter attack if the other side brings too many men forward, which we did.

DeMarcus Beasley got his head into the match which was smart and now we need a 3 point victory against a good Ghana team and an Italy win to move on. Our group features 4 evenly matched teams, and is a true group of death.

My man of the match is Carlos Bocanegra. He was smart when he made his overlapping runs and was a solid solid man marker. Also, Gooch maybe on his way to being one of the greatest Americans ever.

Any idea why Arena didn't sub out McBride for Johnson late?

Anonymous said...

Mates-

My heart goes out to your heroic and brave effort today. USA deserved the full 3 points but as is typical in international football, Italy's players take dives, and sell utter rubbish to the unsuspecting officials and inlfuence the outcome of matches.

Is it any wonder they have a match fixing scandal going on there.

I was most impressed by the tall defender, #22. He stood tall and for my money was the best player on the pitch.

Anonymous said...

I just saw the replay. It was an offsides. Great shot by Beasley and dumb move by McBride to be caught in an offsides position. It should have been a goal because McBride didn't influence the play but he was offsides and linesman determined he was involved. Dumb, dumb. Cost us 2 points. :(

Anonymous said...

Great effort by USA! They were unlucky to not win the game and would have if not down 2 players. The officiating was crap but as a regular follower of USA I'm not surprised. Why are the players? I can understand if the questionable tackle is near the goal or otherwise necessary but Mastroeni makes a reckless tackle at midfield with about 20 seconds left in the half. Then, knowing the ref is calling it tight, Pope makes a similarly reckless and similarly unecessary tackle. STUPID!!

Johnson or Wolff in the last 5 minutes would have been logical but so would Twellman and Adu so that's the Bruce.

A win and they're in! Can't ask for more.

Anonymous said...

A check of my group math reveals that a win and USA COULD be in.

Gotta hope the Czech gets bounced!

Kartik said...

Why did Arena take one sub to the locker room with him?

Wouldn't Eddie Johnson have added some pace and attacking ability in the last ten minutes. I know we wanted McBride's ability in the air, but he was spent and we needed fresh legs.

Kartik said...

Gregg your point on Keller is very well taken. A slow build up from the back so long as we didn't get dispossesed would have killed a lot more time.

Kartik said...

The TSG (Technical Study Group) which FIFA employes to rate games ranks this game as the best thus far in the World Cup. Much of that can be attributed to the amount of open space on the field created by 2 red cards for us, 1 for them and a bunch of tired frontline players for Italy who didn't track back on defense at all.

Hopefully Italy will give a more complete effort against the Czechs, otherwise we are already out of this world cup. (Unless we beat Ghana 3-0 and the Czechs beat Italy 3-0- we then advance over Italy on goal differential)

Anonymous said...

Your side played well today. That official will not be allowed to officiate another World Cup match I hope.

Anonymous said...

Just watched the replay and here's what I noticed:

- USA played an offside trap throughtout the game. They got a generous whistle or two in the run of play. The Italy goal was a result of USA trying to play the offside trap on a set piece - not a good idea anyway, but with this officiating crew...........

- Italy played to the official's whistle so much it's embarassing! (I've been hyping the World Cup to whoever would listen and a close friend and novice fan called me in the middle of the game to tell me that the Italians diving had ruined the tournament for him).

- The first yellow on Pope is the real bullshit call - he's the one dragged down.

- Keller, Reyna (again), Donovan, Bocanegra with solid performances.

Kartik said...

We will have a full wrap up and thoughts about the game later in the day.....

Anonymous said...

Agreed Rafael and Gregg. Did everyone miss the obvious hand ball?????????????????????????