Assess the USA soccer situation here

If that's the trophy presenter, I'm staying up late.

Still the all-time best sports picture, ever.

 

When you enter "LPGA Penis Trophy" in Google Images that's the only image that comes up. Even with the safe mode turned off.

 

Well, as I said, there were three MLS players on the field for the Czech game. My point was that you can't trace U.S. failure to MLS if there are only a few of them playing.
As for your assessment of the Italy game, it could not be more vacant or inaccurate. Gagged? Pablo M. barely missed his shot in the first half. DMB put it in the freaking net and lost his goal. I was at the game. I know what we all saw. Ask Webby, who was there too. Ask the guys who played in it.
This is the only country in the World Cup that's being asked to apologize for scoring on an opponent's own goal. It's a joke.

 

As I wrote last week, the performance against Italy was heroic. We outplayed them and outran them the whole game, despite only having 8 field players for the last 45 minutes and no time to discuss strategy with the coaches. In fact, our weakest stretch came after it was 11 v. 10.

The own goal was the result of an excellent cross and a striker ready to shoot behind the Italian defender. No apologies for that one.

Justified or not, the second and third games were completely skewed by referee decisions. Was this a team who had a chance to make the semis? No way. But I saw no reason to think that we couldn't have gotten a place in the second round. If we had a weak group like Mexico or Ecuador, we would have been there.

 

You know, that's 100 percent correct. Everybody talked about the glorious own goal caused by Beckham's free kick against Paraguay, but the USA was "lucky" to score against Italy. You want to see luck? Look at what happened to Italy yesterday. That was lucky.

 

USA was lucky to score a goal with only four shots on goal in three games. OK, that one was legit. But there was hardly any semblance of an offense.

Funny thing is, I used to work with a guy who bagged on Team USA at the Athens Olympics, because "that team showed no pride. Just wait until the 2006 World Cup -- you will see pride." Um, yeah.

 

If you saw the Italy game, you saw pride.
You just did not see offensive aggression.
Two different things.

 

I saw the other two games, too. Didn't see pride.

 

Oh, damn, I stand corrected.  Pablo almost had a shot on target in the first half.  Yeah, that's a juggernaut.  How "vacant and inaccurate" of me.  And DMB was offside, making that lost goal not so impressive.

And no one's looking for an apology for an own goal.  The point is, without the own goal it's a loss.  That was the total of the offense for the "dominant" US - an Italian mis-hitting a clearing volley and knocking in in his own net.

 

Did you see the Beckham "own goal"? There is a slight difference between Beckham's shot brushing a defender on its way into the net and and an Italian defender botching a clearance volley and parking it in his own net.

 

Did they want to be there? Or did the soccer players bitch and moan about "security" issues? Did the USA soccer players stay on some luxury cruise liner? And the US soccer team never claimed to be the world's best. They didn't "guarantee" a gold medal (Hello Yellow Carmelo) and then get their asses kicked all over the place by Puerto Rico. The soccer team lost to a very good Czech team that, if healthy, may have made it to the finals. Had the US played the Czechs third and sans Jan Koller, the outcome would have been similar to Ghana and Italy and the 2-0 wins they gave the Czechs. The soccer team gave their hearts and souls against Italy and were unlucky not to win. Then all I hear is how Ghana was so much better than the USA. Really? Because Claudio Reyna had a brain fart and the referee sneezed which caused him to blow his whistle when Onyewu won a headball in the box?

Keep rooting for Team USA basketball and calling the "Dream Team." They were nothing but a bunch of pussies (save Tim Duncan) who couldn't beat a territory of the USA. the US soccer team wants to wear the red, white and blue, which is more than I can say for countless gutless pussies in this country that play basketball, hockey and baseball.

OK, so they didn't play well and couldn't get out of the Group of Death. Big fucking deal. Two teams don't make it out of the Group of Death. Why was it the Group of Death? A good reason was because the USA was in there.

I'll give you five bucks, Oz, if you go up to Brian McBride and tell him he didn't play with any pride. Or Kasey Keller. Or Oguchi Onyewu. Or Clint Dempsey. Not scoring enough goals doesn't mean they didn't play with pride. So they lost twice in the Group of Death. In the grand scheme of things, what's really wrong with that?

 

So the goal would have been scored any way, even if the Paraguayan defender hadn't headed the ball? Try again. It was lucky. Threw the goalie off just enough.