World Cup Matches of the Day; [R] 6/17/06

[montgjules]

Agreed, I was surprised to find myself criticizing The Bruce's choices of not subbing out Eddie who was playing recklessly with a yellow (although I don't blame him for the second yellow at all personally...) and for not putting in the third sub at the end of the game. A fresh set of legs could have made something happen.

[soccerman]

Please Please Please don't let some suck-a** EuroTrash POS team like Italy win this thing. I was pulling for the Italians to win it all before this hack job. Now I hope the next plane they get on drops out of the sky onto Jorge Larrionda's head. Hell of an effort by the boys though with the exception of DMB. Kid's got zero heart. Pope's done as well, but at least he gives an effort.

[I_Believe_In_Kreis]

A few game thoughts:

As I wrote previously, the U.S. needs to find somebody who can finish. 0 shots on goal is unacceptable for a World Cup team, especially one that needs a win. Or I guess we can hope Ghana scores 4 OG's.

I don't say this very often, but the game was pretty badly officiated. I hope Larrionda gets busted down to U-7 games in Uruguay. The call against Mastro was a solid yellow, but red? Then again, Mastro does play for Colorado.

Has Pope turned into a veg? He blew the coverage on the I-ti's goal, and to still be playing so recklessly despite having a yellow AND seeing a teammate sent off 3 minutes earlier.....wow.

My prediction for Thursday: U.S. beats Ghana 2-1 but Italy ties the Czechs. The U.S. goes home based on GD.

[AreliusIV]

Originally Posted by AreliusIV

My predictions:
Portugal 2 : 0 Iran
Czech Rep. 3 : 0 Ghana
Italy 2 : 0 USA

Final Scores:
Portugal 2 : 0 Iran
Czech Rep. 0: 2 Ghana
Italy 1 : 1 USA

[edaw33]

was it me or was that italian team playing the "carlos ruiz" card ALL DAMN GAME. i swear they were almost as P&*$Y! as the french army. anything as much as a look at any player and they fell over and acted like they had been kicked in the groin. i watched the game with two people who are sooooooo close to finally accepting this game but that horrible officiating and the holllywood acting made both people hate soccer more than they ever have. give me a flippin break man. if you are a world power, stand up and play the damn game and quit all the flipping garbage. i will never cheer for an italian in anything for the rest of my life after that. it was ridiculous!

<edit: i will start my "no cheering for italy" resolve AFTER they are done whooping the Czechs> 🙂

[AreliusIV]

That was one of the most surreal matches in World Cup history - three red cards, one slapstick own goal, a dubiously disallowed goal and lots of other stuff to put the hurt on the funny bone.


USMNT things of note:

2 matches in and still the US hasn't generated a goal. In fact, after two matches the US only has one shot on goal.

I said it before that I am concerned at our lack of offense. Other than Bake, The Bruce chose 3 very inexperienced forwards.

Speaking of the forwards, Chingy has yet to play. Others who haven't seen action yet are:

Chris Albright
Ben Olsen
Gregg Berhalter

[AreliusIV]

Originally Posted by I_Believe_In_Kreis

I don't say this very often, but the game was pretty badly officiated. I hope Larrionda gets busted down to U-7 games in Uruguay. The call against Mastro was a solid yellow, but red? Then again, Mastro does play for Colorado.

USA v. Italy Ref Had Been Banned Before for "Irregularities"

From ESPN Soccernet...

Wednesday, January 9, 2002
Uruguay's World Cup referee among five banned

MONTEVIDEO, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Uruguay handed six-month bans to five of its top referees on Wednesday including Jorge Larrionda, who only two days earlier was named by FIFA to officiate at this year's World Cup finals.

Five more referee's were warned but not suspended, Matias Vazquez, president of the Uruguayan Football Association's (AUF) School of Referees, told Reuters.

Vazquez said FIFA would be informed of the ban and that soccer's world governing body would routinely be expected to endorse it, causing Larrionda to miss the tournament.

The bans were announced after a controversial three-month investigation by the AUF into alleged irregularities.

Critics said the AUF had not made it clear what the irregularities were. Media reports speculated the investigations were sparked by claims made by other referees.

[AreliusIV]

I took a massive dose of a nameless hallucinogen this morning. (I'm not sure what it was; I copped it off my buddy Trev; it had Spongebob Squarepants printed on it...) So my perception of today's match is all skewed. I thought I saw Mastroeni sent off for a touch-tackle, McBride's head split open, Pope sent off for a touch-tackle, an Italian own-goal, a Beasley goal disallowed, Donovan playing with resolve, Bocanegra and Cherundolo playing well, the USA gritting out an improbable result and a pair of highlight reel saves from Keller to give us an outside chance of survival.

What really happened?

[Jose Luis Luviano]

FWIW, the Radio Unica team said that Mastroeni's red was justified.

Also, the ref did not call Conrad for pulling on an Italian jersey in the area near the end.

Burn the blue uniforms!

We're going to wonder for the next several decades what O'Brien, Lewis, Ching or Johnson could have done near the end.

[montgjules]

Originally Posted by AreliusIV

I took a massive dose of a nameless hallucinogen this morning. (I'm not sure what it was; I copped it off my buddy Trev; it had Spongebob Squarepants printed on it...) So my perception of today's match is all skewed. I thought I saw Mastroeni sent off for a touch-tackle, McBride's head split open, Pope sent off for a touch-tackle, an Italian own-goal, a Beasley goal disallowed, Donovan playing with resolve, Bocanegra and Cherundolo playing well, the USA gritting out an improbable result and a pair of highlight reel saves from Keller to give us an outside chance of survival.

What really happened?

🕺

To top it all off, I had my brother ("Nah, I don't want to go up to the game. Soccer's lame. It's boring.") saying, "Ah man, you guys almost got me hooked. I wish I could stay for the second half."

It's games like THAT that make soccer fans out of your regular Americans. :signrocko