Tuesday, June 16, 2009

USA v. Italy Afterthoughts

If you know me... and since you're one of the few people who reads my blog, I'm going to guess that you do... you would know that I love USA soccer. In particular, I like to follow the men's national team. The reasons why are many and fantastic. For one, I used to play goalkeeper for my high school's team (the first ever soccer team at Turner Ashby High School in the Spring of '98... holler!), and I have continued to play in rec leagues even at the ripe old age of 28. That reason by itself wouldn't be enough because you might say to yourself, "Well, wouldn't you rather watch a GOOD team play soccer rather than watch the US Men's National Team stumble all over themselves before kicking each other in the crotch?" To which I would reply, well I also love rooting for my country. So there. Suck on that.

The USMNT (as people in the know often call them), are currently competing in the FIFA Confederations Cup. Each country on the globe fits within a certain FIFA region and within each region is a biannual tournament. USA competes in the CONCACAF region (which somehow stands for North & Central America and the Caribbean, although I don't remember how), and the biannual tournament is called the Gold Cup. The USMNT won that tournament in 2007, so they get the right to play in this FIFA world tournament that is basically a ramp-up to the World Cup since it is held the year before the World Cup, and it's held in the same country as the big event. The group stage (i.e. the first stage of the tournament) consists of 2 groups, but the US definitely got the short end of the straw when it comes to the teams that we're drawn to compete against. Our group consists of Italy (World Cup 2006 champs), Brazil (World Cup 2002 champs and COPA America winners), and Egypt (African region's champs... a consistent and solid team). The other group consists of Spain (European Cup 2008 winners and probably the best team in the tournament), South Africa (subpar tournament hosts who might make it out of their group by default... looks fishy to me), Iraq (craptacular Asian region winner), and New Zealand (super craptacular Oceania region winner).

Okay, enough of the setup, now onto the USMNT's first game which was against Italy. Pure Bull$hit. Can I cuss on this website? I hope so because other words will not do it justice. In the first half of the game, the US was really putting pressure on Italy and doing a decent job of diffusing their timely passing and technical proficiency. Jozy Altidore was holding the ball up pretty well at the striker position, and the speed and tackling of the US was giving Italy fits. Then it happened... the worst call that I have seen in years. A mere 33 minutes into the game, Ricardo Clark comes sliding in on a hard challenge, but he is late and completely misses the ball nailing an Italian player just below the knee. Clark was not extremely late as he obviously left his feet before the ball left the Italian player's foot, but it was an obvious foul and probably even a yellow card. However, the referee incredulously produces a straight red card, causing Clark to get ejected from the game and forcing the US to play a man down for the entire 60 minutes remaining in the game. It was a complete sham and was making me think that some Italian fan paid off this ref to make up for the red card De Rossi received in the 2006 World Cup match where the US ended up tying Italy (making us the only team who was not beaten by Italy in the 2006 World Cup).

The remaining 10 players played admirably for the rest of the game, and even took the lead in the 41st minute on a penalty kick goal by Landon Donovan. Jozy Altidore had controlled a long pass and while moving into the box, put a nifty move on the ball causing his Italian defender to grab hold and foul him before he could hit a sure goal. Donovan stepped up and calmly slotted the penalty kick home to make the score 1-0 at halftime. However, in the second half the US ran out of gas from having to chase the ball around the field due to their 10 v. 11 disadvantage, and the Italians gobbled up their chances hitting difficult strikes from distance on their first two goals, and abusing a tired Jay Demerit on the final goal (a minute before the game ended when the US had pushed forward to try to get a desperation goal). You could certainly blame this loss at least partially on the defending because it was not good in the second half, but I can't help but think that we might have tacked on another goal or two with a full squad, and we were screwed out of that option by the referee. Let 'em play sir... let 'em play.

The next match is on Thursday against Brazil, and offensively they are just scary. Kaka is a magnificent offensive threat with good size and strength, and the man has an uncanny nose for the goal, not to mention the soft touch and passing of a midfielder. Brazil also boasts the best right back in the tournament, Danny Alves, who is equally proficient getting forward on offense as he is defending. I watched Brazil's first match against Egypt and can say that if the US is going to hurt Brazil, they need to attack their left back, central defenders, and defensive midfielder who are all decent but not all-star caliber like the rest of the team. Getting a point or three against Brazil would be an extremely tough task for the US, but it's not impossible, so I think you know that I'll be DVRing that action.

Go Landycakes! Go Jozy! Go other US players who don't do very much! Let's get a win!!

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