USSoccer

I'm so angry I waited however many hours to watch that joke. Bruce Arena coached that game like it was a CONCACAF qualifier, or a Gold Cup game. Inexcusable lineup, idiotic substitutions. To not start Dempsey was bad enough, but to never bring him on when it was clear that your team suffers from some sort of brain freeze when it comes to breaking down a packed attacking third is just insane. Just freakin' idiotic. You don't leave your most creative offensive player on the bench the entire game when you managed to get ONE shot on goal and ONE other pseudo opportunity. You can't play the Czechs without your best players on the field. Josh Wolff must be like the Neifi Perez of the National Team. He's done nothing since 2001, but somehow stays on the roster and got in the game ahead of far more deserving players. Eddie Pope is fulfilling my Jeff Agoos comparision, but both Pope and Gooch sucked today. Gooch gave up on Rosicky's 3rd goal, and both of them needed to be slapped after Koller's. Just crap. The defense needed to be much sharper, and they incomprehensibly looked a step slow the entire time. We were lucky not to lose by 4 or 5. Beasley needs to be benched, and not play again this WC. I'm dead serious. He hasn't done a thing in a year now, and between he and Convey our wings were useless. Our attack was far slower than it needed to be given our incapability to break down their defense (thank you Reyna for slowing our offense down). I'd take my chances with Dempsey and a 80% O'Brien over Beasley and Convey any day. We looked terrible. Just terrible. I could have lived with a loss, but that was pathetic. We looked the worst we've looked in at least 6 years, and at the worst possible time. No one played well at all, and Arena didn't coach well. Now we have to beat Italy and Ghana if we want to guarantee an advance, which means we just screwed ourselves, because the way we looked today we're going home in 10 days. This is the most dissapointed I've been since September of 2004.

Mee too. There's about a 7 hour gap between the game ending and me being home to watch it. And Seth, I wish I could get sick, but I'm the senior guy in my office, and if I miss, the place goes straight to hell. It's ironic, really. I woke up with the stomach flu, but I can't not go into work. What crap. Keys to game: -Speed on the flanks: We have to be able to catch the Czechs upfield. They attack like crazy, and their mids can get caught way out of position. Need our wings to take full advantage of this. -The back line: No. More. Mental. Mistakes. I'm looking in the direction of Cherundolo. -Finishing: Whoever starts up front have to score. We're going to have chances. We just have to finish them. No more tanking clear headers, Eddie Johnson. No more weak shots, Landon. No more sucking, Josh Wolff (if you play, which I hope you don't). Finish. I'm so pumped up for this.

All of you people who are able to watch the game live tomorrow upset me greatly.

Ronaldo is a bit intense... And Angola accounted for themselves well. Portugal should be up by more that 1. If Angola can level it, I'll bet frustration will start to show.

Well...good for Oswaldo Sanchez. He played a good game and it must have been tough for him losing his father and having to focus on the game today. Kudos to the Mexican fans...by far the most enthusiastic, energetic fans thus far. And that's the extent of the praise that the Mexican team will get from me. Iran was terrible.

Mexico looks shaky in the back. That isn't a positive sign for them...

Robben was awesome today. Dang, 1-0 Mexico.

Anyone else looking forward to Mexico crapping the bed tomorrow? :D

Wouldn't a 360 degree turn mean that it was still controlled by Argentina? In the real world, yes, but in the world of ESPN's "F" crew, it means something entirely different.

Nesta looks like he's fit for the opener v Ghana. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=370590&cc=5901

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=davies/index This guy is hilarious:

the offside rule is only in effect if the person recieving the ball is in front of the passer/ball. the ball can be played sideways or backwards (or forward as long as the recieving player is behind and runs onto it) and it doesn't matter. gotcha. thanks. That was the one thing I hated about refereeing - a majority of the parents not understanding what offsides was. That was so aggravating sometimes. Hey now, I just couldn't remember the rule! :D

Sweet.

England looked really pedestrian, although Crouch must have killed that ref's dog in a past life or something. He couldn't move but to get whistled. They really need Rooney and a 100% Owen. BTW, my wife is angry at Beckham not getting credit for the own goal. Good for T&T getting a point against Sweden. Quite a thing for the backup keeper to come on and blank a team that gets 18 shots. The Argentina/IVC game was really entertaining, except for Bill Raferty doing color commentary and shouting half the time. I kept waiting for him to yell "And Crespo...with the KISS off the post". IVC need to finish better, because they easily could have won that game if they were better in the attacking third.

The Germany game is on ESPNU right now I'm actually kind of irked that ESPN Classic didn't replay any of the 2002 games during the week leading up to today. I would have loved to see replays of the US games against Portugal, Mexico and Germany, as well as some of the other games.

the offside rule is only in effect if the person recieving the ball is in front of the passer/ball. the ball can be played sideways or backwards (or forward as long as the recieving player is behind and runs onto it) and it doesn't matter. gotcha. thanks.

BTW, I'm confused as to how Ecuador's 2nd goal wasn't pulled back for offsides. The first pass sent them both through on, but the 2nd and final pass, the goal scorer was way off. I seem to recall having been called off in that exact situation before. Has that rule changed?

Yeah, but the depth of how dull and unimaginative the Polish attack was just can't be understated. It looked like a US team from like 1995 out there. BTW, Seth, what's with the "new" ball? All the announcers are making it seem like it's filled with flubber or something. I'm really, REALLY looking forward to the England/Paraguay game tomorrow, and still on edge about someone wrecking Monday for me.

That Ecuador v Poland game was a pretty dull affair. Poland looked totally outclassed by an inferior team. Great first day overall. Who'd have though 8 goals on the opening day?

6 goals in the first game. The ball is juiced. Seriously, Lahm and Frings' goals were just sick, but Germany won't beat a good team with that defense. Looking forward to Poland and Ecuador.

The original thread wasn't good enough for TT! I'm so pumped.

So a country would rather win the WC in soccer than the Olympic gold medal in soccer. (Serious Question) Oh, by miles. The Olympics is like the Arena Bowl compared to the World Cup's Super Bowl, times 100,000

I'm actually starting to get really confident about the US, as long as the back line holds. Everything is breaking our way thus far. /knock on wood.

There's also an article up about Arena not buying all the Czech injury news. Also, I can't figure out how to insert a picture in my sig. It's driving me nuts. yeah, he seems to be ok. But if he's not 100%, it's a big boost. he'll drive the majority of the Czech attack. If Mastroeni starts, Nedved is going to be red carded by the end of the game. Between Mastro's tenacity and Nedved's habitual retaliation, we should be in good shape. Ditto for Totti, now that I think about it.

There's also an article up about Arena not buying all the Czech injury news. Also, I can't figure out how to insert a picture in my sig. It's driving me nuts. same way you put a picture in a post. I don't think I've ever done that, either .