I'm going to continue my little rant from above. There were four clear consequences of the referee's actions today. 1. Rather than the US being up a man or at worst 10 v 10 (with Pope still getting the two yellows) and at least have a decent chance of winning the match, he completely killed any momentum that the US had. So instead of having the whole second half up a man or even strength, the US had to play down a man the whole time. This affected who Arena could substitute during the second half. 2. It hurts the US for the next match because now they are without two starters that they shouldn't have to play without. Pope isn't a huge loss, but any time you lose a starter for a game, it's going to hurt. 3. During the game, I'm sure the players had absolutely no idea what the referee was going to call and what he was going to allow. It's unbelievable how much a crappy referee can affect the play of the game. 4. As I said above, the ref cost us a great chance to win the game. Had we won the game everybody in the group would have had 3 points which would put the US in a win-and-advance situation. Now we have to beat Ghana and hope that Italy beats the Czech Republic. Assuming that the US isn't going to demolish Ghana, this is the only realistic way we are going to advance. On a positive note though, everybody has to play hard on Thursday. Even though Italy is in first place, if they lose and Ghana wins, Italy won't advance. If the Czech's lose and either the US or Ghana wins, the Czech's won't advance. If the Czech's tie and Ghana wins, the Czech's won't advance. If Ghana wins, they will advance for sure. If the US wins and the Czech's lose, they will advance. So everybody has something to play for which should provide for two entertaining games.