Deserved (and more). Weak call. Weaker .
But "mission accomplished". We have a point from our first two games and need to beat Ghana to have a chance of advancing. Which is just how we thought it would be when the draw was announced.
C'mon USA! Forza Italia!
Actually all 3 cards were deserved. The 1st yank card was a two footed stud first challenge on pirlo's ankle,potentially damaging....the 2nd was for two yellow cards so no compliants there,the yanks were getting rather meaty wit their tackles....but still take nothing away from team USA,they played brilliant,all the more credit for them wanting to take the game despite being one man down
ReplyDeleteazzuri fan
The straight red on Mastroeni would have been a yellow in any other situation - still, he should have known that the referee would be looking for a make-up call and been a bit more cautious. The play in question contained little threat.
ReplyDeleteThe Italian diving was just embarrassing - I hope FIFA cracks down on it soon (after the Czech Republic match, of course).
Unbelievable atmosphere in the stadium though - the US fans were going crazy for the entire match (my voice is still pretty much useless).
Hopefully, we can get it done against Ghana...I'll be happy with that regardless of whether we advance or not.
Lost amongst the awful refereeing was the gritty US display, albeit a little over the top in the beginning. Wasn't the foul count 12 to 1 in the first 10 or 15 mins? It was obvious that Bruce studied the tape of the Italy-Switzerland friendly and decided to use the same somewhat-ugly tactics that the Swiss used to control Italy. Ironically, now that Italy has become a more attacking (and entertaining) team, they are less apt to take and dish out punishment like they used to. Should the US have played the Italy of old, it would have been lights out for them. Nonetheless kudos to Bruce and his men for a very gritty display. Now on to Ghana where he'll have to change tactics yet again...
ReplyDeleteCan anyone explain why Arena didn't use his third sub when the whole damn team was walking around with 10 minutes left in the game?giving Italy corner after corner?
ReplyDeleteWe were discussing just that on the way out of the stadium. Donovan and McBride were clearly SPENT. Not sure why he didn't bring on Eddie Johnson to run up front or someone like Ben Olsen to make a pest of himself in central midfield and run, run, run...
ReplyDeleteI just assumed that the Bruce didn't trust his subs. Lando and especially McBride were needed to hold up play. Keep as much possession as possible.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to see EJ against a ragged Italy defense, but at that point the Bruce wanted the ball and the draw.
My $0.02.
j
20/06 Captain Torres, 40 points thank you very much, onwards and upwards!
ReplyDeletewhen you chose the wrong captain it sucks big time but when you chose the right 1 its so sweet!