USA v. Egypt Afterthoughts

Uhhh... what the heck just happened? USA beats Egypt 3-0, Brazil beats Italy 3-0, and somehow the USMNT is moving into the next round of the Confederations Cup? I am still giddy, and it's a full day after the monumental win. It took a perfect storm to get these results. First off, USA and Brazil both had to win in order to get 3 teams (Italy, USA, and Egypt) to a 1-2 record for the first round of the tournament. Brazil was already going to move on before they even kicked the ball to start their game since they'd won both of their previous matchups against the US and Egypt. So with all three teams tied with a 1-2 record, the next tie breaker was goal differential. USA needed to score 3 goals and Italy needed to score 0 goals and give up 3 to put the US and Italy tied at a -2 goal differential in the tournament. If Egypt scored 0 goals in their game against the US, they would be out of the running with a -3 goal differential. So in that scenario, the US would advance to the second round of the tournament on total goals scored, which is the third tiebreaker. See how intricate and precise this all had to be for the US to advance? And that's exactly what happened... it's mind-numbing really.


USA coach Bob Bradley decided at the beginning of the game to stick with the guys he felt most comfortable with, except there were two notable changes. He decided to put Brad Guzan in goal instead of Tim Howard. I still have no idea why he did that... Howard is unequivocally the best US goalkeeper right now, but the move paid off in the end as Guzan had a fantastic game. Bradley also opted to start Charlie Davies at forward in a pairing with regular starter Jozy Altidore. That move also paid off as Davies scored the first goal for the US about 25 minutes into the game. Davies brings a dangerous speed and athleticism that had been lacking in the US attack.

Also contributing to the "perfect storm" was the fact that Egypt's two best strikers, Mohamed Zidan and Amr Zaki, were both out for the game with injuries. Egypt's attacking prowess was dealt a mighty blow with the loss of both of those players. They didn't look terribly dangerous except for maybe two possessions in the game. One was a shot from about 25 yards out that hit the top of the crossbar as it whizzed over. The other was very late in the game where an Egyptian player crossed the ball to Gomaa, their tallest defender, but his header was put too high.

On the other hand, the US was threatening the Egyptian goal all game long. Davies drilled some shots that were parried away by the keeper, Landon Donovan was making runs through and around defenders, Clint Dempsey was attempting to keep the keeper busy, and Michael Bradley was taking some dangerous efforts from both inside and outside of the 18 yard box.

The first goal was "scrappy", but it wasn't pretty. Jozy Altidore tried to cross the ball from near the end line, but it was picked out of the air by Egyptian goalkeeper El Hadary. However, his own player knocked the ball out of his hands, which allowed Charlie Davies the chance to pounce. Davies touched the ball away from the keeper, shielded off another Egyptian player, passed back to his right foot and slotted the ball home off of the face of the goalkeeper. I was very impressed with Davies' efforts to keep three Egyptian players away from the ball long enough to put it home.

The second goal came from precision passing. Michael Bradley made a nice through-pass to Landon Donovan, who dribbled into the box and made a perfect centering pass back to Michael Bradley who slotted the ball into the lower right hand corner of the goal as he was sliding down. I watched Bradley's face after the goal as he approached Landon Donovan, and you could see Bradley mouthing "Good f#*!ing ball" as he came up for a hug. It was hilarious at the time, I can assure you of that.

The third goal seemed to come from nowhere. The US was moving players forward towards the goal which is where the ball came to the feet of Jonathan Spector, who looked around a little while from his wide-right position and decided to cross the ball in to his players. The cross was picture perfect, put in a place where only Clint Dempsey could get to the ball, and for once in this tournament, Dempsey did not disappoint. He headed the ball into the inside of the side-netting, and just like that, the United States was in a position to celebrate.

There also should have been a fourth goal, or at least a penalty kick and a red card, earlier in the second half before the second goal was scored. Jozy Altidore took a shot at goal from near the 18 yard line, which hit an Egyptian defender who was standing on the goal line, and the ball kicked back out. Replays showed that the shot nicked the defender's leg, but then bounced up into the defender's arm, which is what ultimately kept the shot out of goal. The standard ruling there is that the Egyptian player would receive a red card and a penalty kick would be given to the US, but the referee completely blew the call and didn't award anything to the US. The final score could have and should have been 4-0.

This game gives me some hope for our next game against Spain. Spain is currently enjoying a ridiculous international unbeaten streak (26 games I think?), but they are not exactly invincible. They only managed to beat Iraq 1-0, and they beat the US 1-0 last year in a friendly where Spain had their best players, but the US was missing Landon Donovan (and the team also did not include Jozy Altidore or Jonathan Spector). I am not going to say anything crazy like that I think the US will win or even that I think the game will be close... if I had to make a guess, I would say Spain wins this one easily 3-0 or so, but I know that if the US comes to play, they have a shot to tie or even win. Stranger things have happened. I am going to watch the game this Wednesday with an open mind.