World Cup Post #7 - 5 days in

OK, let's deal with the elephant in the room. At least its the elephant in my room. Why did the U.S. get bitchslapped by the Czechs? Here are my reasons: #1: Onyewu's yellow card in the 4th minute limited his ability to be physical up front. #2: DeMarcus Beasley was on the right (he's better on the left) and just played like he was scared. #3: Our balls apparently shrunk back up into our insides. Our attack and midfield simply would not go at their defenders with any confidence. Bobby Convey was the lone exception to that statement, but he was also out of position on the wing. #4: Eddie Pope is not that good. #5: we only had one striker up top for the first half. Nobody wins with a 4-5-1 when nobody on your team plays that formation in club play. #6: the Czechs are flat out really good. #7: we were overly confident and expected to just walk in and beat a favorite to win the cup. #8: We tried to play in the air with a team that is bigger than us. #9: Pablo Mastroeni forgot to show up. #10:

So can we beat Italy? If you ask most people, they would say no. However, I choose to be more optimistic because I have to be. What do we need to do to beat Italy? First, let's fix the Beasley issue. If he is on the field, let's switch him back to the left. If you want Convey there, have him play inside. Beasley's gifts are speed and a left leg. Convey is an attacker. Drop Mastroeni and have Reyna play the holding mid with Donovan attacking. Its sort of a 4-3-1-2. Put Eddie Johnson in up top to start. One straight attacker in Johnson paired with a target man in McBride. Keep Gooch in the back with Lewis on the left. Let Lewis push forward overlapping with Beasley and Convey. If not, look to Bocanegra. Let Pope stay? I don't know who else to put in the middle. Maybe Berhalter? Sounds like trouble to me. Maybe someone else on the right like Bocanegra or even Albright, who can also push up into the attack. You may notice that my strategy is heavily offensive. Well, it needs to be. We need to score early and often against Italy. If they score first, they'll drop back and defend, looking for the counter. So we need our back line to be tough. Also, look at Italy's win over Ghana. Ghana had a ton of chances against what is supposed to be a strong Italian defense. If Ghana had a shooter, they would have scored and maybe gotten a draw. There are Americans that can shoot and Americans with speed. Italy's goals came on Ghana mistakes, not as much Italy execution. Look, I know how optimistic I sound, but I am simply saying what I think needs to happen, not necessarily what will happen.

Other game evaluations:

Germany 4 - 2 Costa Rica: Germany looked stronger than I thought, but Costa Rica played no defense. Germany will get better when Ballack comes back.

Ecuador 2-0 Poland: Kind of a stunner, but Poland is a boring team and they played boring. An upset of sorts, but Poland had been struggling to score.

England 1-0 Paraguay: An incredibly lackluster performance by the 3 Lions. In case you didn't hear it from the shitty ESPN announcers the 5 million times they mentioned it, this was the only time a World Cup game was decided by an own goal. England was uninspired and their midfield was invisible. Also, they did have Marco Rodriguez as the official. He not only is the worst official in FIFA, but also looks like a Mexican vampire.

Trinidad 0-0 Sweden: I didn't catch much of this game, but it was an absolute stunner. Getting a draw with Sweden was a big deal. Getting a draw while being down a man for the whole second half is even bigger. Credit goes to the heart of Trinidad as well as a remarkable performance by Shaka Hislop - their 37 year-old backup keeper. If you want to understand how a 0-0 game can be exciting, watch this one at some point.

Argentina 2-1 Ivory Coast: The score does not show how much Argentina controlled this game. Ivory Coast was supposed to make it tough, but Argentina owned the possession throughout (60% - which is a lot). They pulled their attack too early - something they won't do from now on. No Tevez, no Messi? Yeah, they've got more in their Arsenal. I'm glad I picked them to win. I think they'll destroy Serbia Friday to show what they really have.

Netherlands 1-0 Serbia-Montenegro: The only thing the Dutch did not do was score too much. 57% possession, 11 shots on goal. They looked mighty good too. If you are not a soccer fan, but you want to be, watch June 21st at noon when they face Argentina. Depending on where they stand in the group, this could be a slobberknocker.

Mexico 3-1 Iran: This one was boring to me. Borgetti out early with a leg injury and two late goals for Mexico turned this from exciting to yawn pretty quick. Mexico played well, but this was not a top opponent. I expect them to fold when they face Portugal.

Portugal 1-0 Angola: Another surprising lackluster performance by a favorite. One thing that I have always thought that was proved correct in this game - Christiano Ronaldo is a bitch. Maybe a wake-up call for the Portuguese. Angola pushed hard, but could not finish. This not-finishing is a trend with the African teams.

Czech Republic 3-0 U.S.A.: We sucked. Read above. This ruined my day.

Italy 2-0 Ghana: Also read above. Ghana is good - about as good as I thought, but not good enough to win.

Australia 3-1 Japan: Maybe the most exciting game yet. My students all left for school around the 80th minute when Japan was winning 1-0. They hardly believed me when I told them that Australia scored 3 goals in 6 minutes to earn the 3 points. They worked and worked and worked to get the first goal, which came on a rebound. Then Cahill got #2 with a brilliant strike that hit the inside of the left post then the inside of the right post before settling in the net. #3 came in stoppage on a Japanese defense that was pushing up for an equalizer. I loved watching this team play. Maybe the surprise of the tournament (which I believe I predicted in a previous post).

South Korea 2-1 Togo: This is the first game that I did not watch. I may not watch the replay either. Good for Korea. No surprise for a Togo team whose coach quit over pay and then came back a day or two ago.

France 0-0 Switzerland: I didn't see much of this either, but its a big surprise and I'm sure the French are freaked out after they ducked out in the group stage in '02. There was a questionable non-call when a Swiss defender stopped a Thierry Henry shot with his arm. Personally, I would have given the penalty. France had chances, as did the Swiss, but nobody could score.

Brazil 1-0 Croatia: I said that Brazil was not as good as people thought, and they helped prove me right today. They had 19 shots (8 on goal) and had chances, but they did not bring the Joga Bonita today. They also only made one sub bringing young superstar Robinho on for fat Ronaldo. That's kind of a joke, by the way, since the President of Brazil publicly called Ronaldo fat. Croatia played tough and created chances, but they just did not convert. Lots of close calls. Brazil better wake up before facing Australia Sunday.

So that's that. Where is the cup going from here? A few big name teams need to figure something out: Brazil, Portugal, France, and England specifically. A few teams did a lot to give them a chance to advance: Australia, South Korea, and Trinidad. Some teams came out and showed the world what they are capable of: Czech Republic, Argentina, Netherlands. The current cup stars: Australia's Tim Cahill, Czech Tomas Rosicky, Trinidad's Shaka Hislop, Costa Rica's Paulo Wanchope, Sancho and Gray in Trinidad's backline, and Argentina's playmaker Juan Riquelme.

More first games tomorrow: Spain vs. Ukraine at 6am (should be a good one) and Tunisia vs. Saudi Arabia at 9 (insert terrorist jokes here). Germany and Poland open the second round of games at noon. Italy vs. United States at noon Saturday to start my first bachelor party (come down to Lucky Baldwin's to join us).