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Italy Looms, Like it or Not
Friday, June 16, 2006 I've been out of town for a few days (and missed some of the best matches, dammit--though that Ivory Coast-Holland match today was an absolute beauty), and I've only just caught up on all the quotes, gossip, etc. surrounding the Czech match over the past few days. A few random thoughts. 1) Several posters have said, upon viewing the game a second time (freakin' masochists, these people), that indeed the US didn't play that bad, and indeed if you didn't watch the goals, the match looked pretty even and the US actually had more possession. They added that to say this team played without heart, as many are doing, is completely unfair. Convey, Reyna, Johnson, and Wolff in particular were running at people the entire team they were in, trying to make something happen. Finally, there is speculation that the U.S. announcers made the US performance seem worse than it actually was. Hmm, where have I heard that before... 2) The guy who had the worst match was Beasley, as everyone knows. The guy who had the second-worst match was Arena. His players did not have clearly defined roles, Onyewu in particular should've been told about a million times to stick to Koller (a point I've made in comments on this blog), and Landon clearly had no kind of game plan for playing as a withdrawn striker. It was as though he wasn't a midfielder, and he wasn't a striker, so he played neither position. More importantly, Arena didn't have them mentally ready for a World Cup match. I won't kill him over the formation choice, but still, it was obviously a bad one. Our head coach is supposed to be the one who knows best what will and won't work for our team. He looked like a genius inserting Beasley, Donovan and Mastroeni into the lineup four years ago. He looks like a fool for picking the players he picked Monday. Obviously he's no fool, but it's becoming clear he's no genius either. What's different is that now, unlike in past years, a lot of people care, and there's actually pressure on our national team coach! If the Nats don't play inspired soccer tomorrow, Bruce will be out of a job. 3) We've got to play for three points tomorrow. A draw will make it almost impossible to get out of the group. If we go down playing for a win, and playing well, I will be satisfied. So let's see Eddie Johnson and Clint Dempsey in the starting 11, and let's show those Italians some youth and some speed. 4) The optimistic prediction: With Landon back to his attack midfield role, and Dempsey, Convey, and Johnson causing havoc, the team actually puts an attack together and scores an early goal. They hang on for dear life while Toni, Gilardino, Nesta, Pirlo, and Totti, all hit the post at some point. U.S. 1, Italy 0. As we Mets fans say, Ya Gotta Believe. Let's go Nats! It's now or 2010.
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© 2004-2005 by Matt Matros | All Rights Reserved |
