USSoccer

And that's why Newcastle were relegated in 08/09

Yakubu does that all the time at Everton

ARG has 79% possession at the moment.

I thought I remember reading Saturday or Sunday Jon's right, Friday at 1:30 CST for winning Group D and making the quarters, Saturday at 9 CST for finishing 2nd and making the quarters and likely playing Argentina. 1C and 2C play either Sat or Sunday.

Wow. That's kinda shocking. I didn't see that coming.

I have to think they play at least a little aggressively. If you bunker, the best case scenario is you move on to Argentina. If you play open you have a shot at equalizing with some time to win. Sounds like they had as many good chances as Uruguay in the first half, so they have to believe they can get on the board. I don't see Mexico being able to bunker properly with this roster anyway. It's built to attack down the wings. SA off the post. Very unlucky.

Tactically, this is very interesting for Aguirre and Mexico. Do they bunker, trying to hold off Uruguay, knowing Bafana Bafana are playing a disinterested and 10 man French side? Do they attack, opening themselves up to condede a 2nd? I'm very curious to see how this plays out.

God France are awful. Why on earth they retained Domenech after Euro 2008 is beyond me.

http://denverpost.slideshowpro.com/albums/001/496/album-118820/cache/sss1599.sJPG_950_2000_0_75_0_50_50.sJPG?1277042711

Lest I forget, Fabiano's 2nd should have been waved off since he handled the ball twice during that sequence, and the world feed caught the ref, walking next to him after, tapping his bicep and smiling.

I beg to differ; it's a natural reaction to put your arm between yourself and whatever/whoever is coming towards you to hit you Keita was coming over to mark him. As a player-especially one on a yellow who was involved in more than a couple chippy exchanges-should know that the ref is going to start to hand out cards at some point in a game like that. Keita going down like he was shot was a joke, too, but Kaka should know better, and his coach should have protected him, knowing he was on a yellow. EDIT: The ref did a horrible job of controlling the game once it got chippy. Just horrible, between the dives, playacting and studs up challenges from CIV.

Keïta ran in to him; you can't expect Kaka to disappear in to the ground. He put his elbow out. Was it a dive? Yes. Was it necessary for Brasil to pull an Italy every time a CIV player fouled them? No. Was it necessary for Kaka to pull that kind of passive aggressive move (which it was)? No. It was a bad call, but it was also a stupid play from Kaka to even put his elbow up. EDIT: Dunga, instead of flipping out on the touchline for 20 minutes leading up to that, should have pulled his better players off when it became clear that CIV was getting chippy.

Brasil have been embellishing the entire 2nd half, and Kaka was getting plenty chippy himself.

Nice composure, Kaka. Brasil, not too mentally tough, I reckon. And CIV are overrated. Again.

You know who has to be right pissed about the performance and behavior of the French? The Irish. DAMMIT so close New Zealand

The fouls in this game are currently 21-7

I was reading a story to my daughter; did I hear that right? That the French refused to practice due to Anelka being sent home, and Domenech resigned as a result?

F off, Italy. The least enjoyable team to watch. I just realized I mixed up Batres with Archundia as well, which helps explain the call.

Oh come on, Carlos. What a crappy call. Thats a dive. Very, very soft.

Holy crap, that was a great strike

Italy are in all out dive mode, reminding me of why I generally loathe Italian football. CONCACAF's best ref, Carlos Batres, should be used to it, though.

LOLZ Cannavaro. Que capitano.

Come on, New Zealand.

I didn't get to see the whole game, but were there other calls where they hounded him for an explanation? Referees are used to calling games with languages they don't know, there isn't a ton of verbal interaction on the field. I have it on good authority that Coulibaly was asked in both English and French what the call was on the field. French is one of his fluent languages. And he still refused. I've watched that portion of the game a hundred times, and Coulibaly was going to call a foul on the play no matter what. He had the whistle in his mouth before Donovan was given the go ahead to kick it. Not sure if he was issuing a makeup call for a weak free kick call, or if he just decided the USA shouldn't win this game, but he was going to call a foul. The whistle blew before Edu touched it. Yeah, the whistle blew while the ball was on its way in, he was planning on making a call the entire time. It was just a coincidence that the ball got put in. If it had been cleared out, the players would have thrown their hands in the air and said "what the hell" and then play would have continued like normal. He was utilizing "defensive refereeing" on nearly ever set piece in the second half. His incompetence is simply staggering. What's funny is that on Torres' free kick in the 1st half he was trying to stop some of the pushing and shirt pulling prior to the restart. He didn't do that in the 2nd. He didn't even mark off the 10 yards on the free kick we had after Jozy got tackled in the open field right on the edge of the 18. The ref was totally out of his depth. In the end, though, whatever. It comes down to 90 minutes on Wednesday. We know that no matter what happens, we aren't going to go down without a massive fightback. This team has that extra quality about it. If we can win Wednesday, anything can happen after that. This team has been the most fun to watch over the past two years than at any other time. I don't expect it to end in 4 days.

I didn't get to see the whole game, but were there other calls where they hounded him for an explanation? Referees are used to calling games with languages they don't know, there isn't a ton of verbal interaction on the field. I have it on good authority that Coulibaly was asked in both English and French what the call was on the field. French is one of his fluent languages. And he still refused.