So, I've just woken up from a nap induced from an afternoon of heavy drinking and here are my thoughts on the day's goings-on...
Germany, and Klose, got Joyced... both of those yellows were fouls but neither warranted a booking... terrible officiating there.
I didn't see the match, just the highlights, so that's all I've got on that one
US defense is for shit - I've been saying it all along but Jesus Christ... Then entire back line plays scared. They seem to be afraid to step up to any attacker on the ball within 25 yard of goal - afraid that they'll get beat one on one and let the attacker have a free run into the box. They seem to prefer to let that man on the ball have 7 yards of space while they sit back waiting to intercept/block the through ball that may never come and rely on the keeper to save any shot the attacker decides to take. Not the proper way to defend. No attacker should be allowed to hold the ball unchallenged withing 30 yards of goal and no one running off the ball should be more than an arm's length away from the man marking him... Jesus this is soccer 101 that these guys should've learned in high school.
Once again, giving up an early goal is basically the worst case scenario and this time we went down 2-0. Can't complain about getting a point after a first half like that but jesus what a bad call to disallow that goal. Three US players were bear-hugged and/or wrestled down on that service and there was absolutely no foul committed by the US... fucking disgrace.
Donovan is a warrior... when his team needed him most, he came through. I've been very critical of him in the past - when he was the most talented player on the team and would disappear for several matches in a row, when he would be completely eliminated from a match as soon as he began to get roughed up a little. For the past two years or so, he's been the heart and soul of this team. He now understands that the rest of the team look to him and feed of of his energy and attitude... he works his ass of now and the team has been much better for it.
England match was exceptionally boring... we spent more time antagonizing the fans in the pub than actually watching from the edges of our stools. The atmosphere was awesome though... we were outnumbered about 20-1 and they were really letting us have it in the first half. Their spirits seemed to die as the match wore on though. Oh, and the Traditional Meat Pie (steak and stilton) was awesome. No homo.
Sky, I don't remember who said it but I recently heard a perfect line form one of the US analysts. The reason that England always under achieves and/or is overrated in the World Cup is because they've got too many English players on their roster. The kind of player who is a complete stud in the EPL but shrivels in international play. His theory was that in the EPL, these English players are surrounded by the creative attacking players from all sorts of other nations and the English, with few exceptions, are little more than the grunts and role players that every team needs. The creativity and style come from the foreigners. You only have to look to your own club to see evidence of this - how many Brits are in the Arsenal squad? one or two?
Now it comes down to the final group matches. For both of us, the situation is basically the same - take care of business and win the match and we're both through to the knockout round. Like we've discussed in the past, if we can't beat the likes of Slovenia & Algeria in crunch time, we don't really deserve to advance anyway.
