Assess the USA soccer situation here

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Deader than crab meat.

 

Tonight, some Brazilian family is sitting around the dinner table talking about this afternoon's match. And they get to talking about a yellow card given to one of the Brazilians, and the wife says to the husband (translated for your protection, of course): "Do you think the refs would have made that call against the United States?"

Egocentricism has been an ugly side of this board today. :

 

The following is not meant to be a flame, but I had two thoughts about the World Cup thus far as I watched an extemely dull baseball game.

1. No self-respecting world class athlete should dive anywhere near as much as many of the players at the WC have been
2. The officiating is terrible for an event of this magnitude, and is likely a primary cause of #1.

Thoughts?

 

Answer the original question Shot. If Onyewu had a Brazilian uniform on, is that foul called?

 

Possibly not, because it would have been a different set of refs doing the game.

And if you dispute that, you're saying that ALL the World Cup refs have it out for the U.S., and that's a little bit overboard.

 

No, I'm not saying that at all. But c'mon, the USA is still considered - for good reason - second-class in world soccer. It's the same reason Albert Pujols gets the outside corner pitch called a ball while it's a strike for David DeJesus. The same reason JJ Redick gets the charging foul called his way, while if was some second-string schmoe of Coach K's bench, it's a blocking foul.

Bottom line is this - it was a bad call. Maybe it cost the USA the game, maybe it didn't. That PK would never have been called against dozens of teams. For the USA, probably Togo or T&T, it is.

 

Point No. 1 is absolutely dead-on. Even my kids noticed that World Cup soccer players (and since that's about the only soccer I see, can I extrapolate that to all pro soccer players?) are the biggest floppers and whiners they've ever seen. I had to explain to my 5-year-old that those guys really aren't hurt that bad, they're just taking a dive.

 

And, not to be sanctimonius, but that's a shitty thing to have to explain to a kid.

The refs bring a lot of it on themselves, though.

 

I've waded through every post on this thread and will probably offer nothing different, but I feel the need to vent (and it's coming in two posts because I've apparently exceeded the length rule).

1. You can't use the way the Czechs opened against the United States and the way they finished as an accurate measuring stick for where the U.S. is at. The U.S. played horrifically that day, but the Czech's had 6-foot-8 forward Jan Koller up top. He scored that first goal five minutes in that cut the legs off the U.S. But he got hurt in the first half, and he never played again. He dwarfs every defender in the world and demands so much attention that the rest of the attack opens up. He scored 10 goals in 12 World Cup qualifiers (I think. I couldn't find the exact number) and he's his country's all-time leading scorer.

2. Why has Kasey Keller escaped free of criticism? He has an unflattering 0-4-1 World Cup record, and outside of one save against Italy, what good has he done? Sure, his defense was spotty at best, but he's regarded as a world-class keeper. In my estimation, great keepers make saves that shouldn't be made (see: Italy's Gianluigi Buffon against the Czechs). I wasn't remotely impressed with him at all. He seemed tentative off his line, and he didn't do much to organize his defense.

3. Landon Donovan was terrible all tournament long. I made the comment to some friends that the worst possible thing for him to do was come back to MLS with his tail tucked between his legs because things got a little too tough in Germany. He seems content to be the big fish in the little pond, which is well and good, I suppose. But don't talk about being good enough to win the World Cup (which he said in SI a few weeks back), and then play with no heart at all when the world's at your fingertips (or toes in the case of soccer).

4. Freddy Adu should've been on the roster. Chris Albright, Jimmy Conrad, John O'Brien, Gregg Berhalter and Josh Wolff barely saw the pitch or didn't play at all. Sure they might've contributed in training sessions, but the fact that none of them were deemed fit enough to see significant match time, the future benefits for Adu could've been immeasurable. I'm not saying Adu should've played (he's scoreless in 14 games for DC United this year), but he should've been there to soak in the atmosphere, so he's not awestruck at 21 when he's playing for the U.S. in South Africa. That of course is assuming that he'll play for the US. He's uncapped and is a dual citizen of Ghana and the U.S., so if he chooses to return to the Motherland, he can (assuming, of course, he's invited). And there goes the best hope for a top-flight forward the U.S. desperately needs. After today's match, if you were him, what would you do? At the very least, it makes a 17-year-old who probably doesn't see the big picture, think awfully hard.

5. I love Eric Wynalda. His commentary has been brilliant and the criticism justified. Though it seems he never has anything positive to say about any team, that's another step in the right direction when the media is shredding the performance to bits. He said a couple gems in the postgame today. First, "Players win games. Coaches lose games. And refs ruin games." He also said, "There's two kinds of refs - bad ones and worse ones." I'd never heard either before.

6. Onyewu has been a target for shortsighted whistles long before this tournament. He said in just about every preview that he's gets calls that someone smaller might not get because his size (6-4, 220, I believe) makes the fouls look worse. Be that as it may, he should adjust to it rather than continue to put his team in a bad spot. And Carlos Bocanegra has escaped a lot of heat since it was his boneheaded play that led to the PK. And, Claudio Reyna got his pocket picked like you only see in video games that put the U.S. down early. All that mess can be avoided with some semblance of urgency from the opening whistle. You can't blame the ref or Onyewu for costing the U.S. the game. They still had plenty of chances in the second half it didn't finish (McBride off the post, Onyewu's header over the bar, and Donovan acting more scared than a white man at night in Harlem on the two chances he had). The U.S. flat out blew it today. The ref has just served as the scapegoat, much like Hugh Dallas did four years ago for (correctly) eating his whistle on the incidental handball against Germany in the quarterfinals.

 

(continued)

7. Comparisons to the 2002 Cup run are unfair, as a number of folks have said. The U.S. was incredibly lucky in that tournament. Consider all the things that went their way:
* In the opener against Portugal, the U.S. took a 2-0 lead on a Portuguese own goal. Donovan tried to send in a cross from the right flank, but it deflected off Jorge Costa’s back and snuck into the goal.
* Brad Friedel stopped a penalty kick against South Korea, which preserved a 1-1 draw that gave the States’ a crucial point in the table.
* U.S. made it out of group play because of South Korea, which had already won the group. They decided to attack Portugal in the group’s final game. Park Ji-Sung’s goal in the 70th minute gave the U.S. – who were simultaneously playing horribly against Poland – second place in the group. If Portgual wins or earns a tie, the expectations never rise.
*In the Round of 16 against Mexico, John O’Brien punched a ball out of the penalty area with the U.S. up 1-0, and no handball was called. Who knows if Friedel would've stopped a third PK, but that's monumental miss. As previously mentioned, it didn't hurt that the U.S. was playing their fiercest rival on the world's biggest stage in a stadium not in Mexico City with 120,000 American-hating Mexicans chucking batteries and bags of urine at you.

This time around, the U.S. had miserable luck, and the one break the got (the Italians beating the Czechs), they screwed it up. The bad luck is only compounded because they played pretty miserable for two thirds of the tournament.

8. Sunil Gulati (president of the US Soccer Federation) should be talking to Jurgen Klinsman, NOW. He lives in Huntington Beach, Calif. He loves the U.S. He's won a World Cup, and he's got Germany playing creatively and looking like they're going to play in the final again. The problem with the U.S. right now is that it is too defensive-oriented. Defense might win championships, but not taking shots on goal, much less scoring, isn't going to do squat for your hopes.

9. Whoever comes in, he MUST play more games in Europe and more games against the top teams from around the world. The 4-1 throttling we got by Germany should've been an eye-opener of what might be on the horizon a few months ago, but we didn't look at it critically because we were playing in Germany with almost none of our players from Europe. Playing Venezuala and Latvia and Morroco before going to a touranment with the top 32 teams in the world isn't going to prepare you for anything but an ass-whipping. When you're going to face Roger Clemens, do you prepare by taking BP off a tee? The U.S. can still play against the also-rans to boost the win-loss record, but if we're serious about getting better, we have to play better competition.

10. Bruce Arena's loyalty bit him in the ass. Four years ago, he gave Jeff Agoos a dubious spot on the roster. What did the Goos do? Against Portugal, a boneheaded misplay led to Portugal's first goal, and then he knocked in the second goal on horrible mishit from 20 yards out. Like someone noted earlier, if that game was 10 minutes longer, the U.S. would've lost. Agoos played for Arena at UVa. and DC United. He subsequently never played again for the U.S. This time, Arena gives a roster spot to John O'Brien, a fine player whose been beset with injuries for the last few years, who was brilliant four years ago. His selection led us to believe he was fit enough to contribute in the midfield. He played the second half against the Czechs and was never heard from again. Today, he brings in DEFENSIVE midfielder Ben Olsen for Captian Claudio in a game where the U.S. was DOWN 1-0 and needed to WIN in order to advance. Olsen, who hasn't done shit internationally (albeit mainly because of injury) went to UVa and was recruited by Arena and played one season for him before playing for him at DC United. Same thing with Donovan. He's coasting on his rep from 2002 and his potential, but he hasn't delivered anything in over a year. Taking away the armband and leaving him out of camp or a couple friendlies might wake him up. Or it could cause him to sulk more, in which case he's got no business being captian or playing for his country.

12. Clint Dempsey's goal was a beauty (though his goal celebration desperately needs some work). I'd like to take an ounce of credit for his play, though. I bought him in FIFA 06 for use on Vfl Wolfsburg. He's helped me win the Bundesliga twice, the Champions League and the German domestic cup. There's got to be some sort of corrolary.

13. I'll still watch the U.S. any time I can. I'll travel if they're playing reasonably close. If I win the lottery, I'll be in South Africa in 2010. I believe George Vescey wrote last week that maybe the outrage some people felt last week is a sign of how far soccer's come in this country (I didn't get to read the column though since I don't have Times Select). I don't care if it never consumes the country. I like it, and for everyone else out there who does, cheers.

 

One note about refereeing. A quick trip to foreign sports sites reveals that the consensus of world opinion isn't that the officials had it in for the US. but that they were doing a staggeringly incompetent job all-around. The bad call that gave Ghana the PK wasn't even the worst blunder of the day. That'd be the English ref in the Australia-Croatia game who gave a Croatian player his second yellow card of the match, THEN FORGOT TO SEND HIM OFF! What did he write in his little notebook, anyhow?
Topping that off, the ref concluded the action by awarding the Croatian his THIRD yellow at game's end. That's a record that'll stand for awhile.
Good thing Australia advanced. If Croatia was still alive, FIFA wouldn't be able to resolve the player's status for the next rounds until 2010.