Unable to watch. How’s the pace so far?
Not so fast. US was bunkering but have opened up a little bit just now.
Well, see, he wasn’t actually even registered in the league so he didn’t understand what it was about. He was the boyfriend of the opposing manager’s daughter. The manager had an extra shirt, so he gave it to the boyfriend so he could play. We didn’t find out until the next week when a shitstorm came up about it.
Could someone please tell me why oh why DaMarcus Beasley is playing in this game, or has played in any other! I spent the last game screaming at him about poor coverage and now am doing it again. I shouldn’t lose my voice sitting alone in my house, yet somehow I manage.
Good defensive play by Omar Gonzalez but that’s like the 3rd low cross that has happened I’ve seen. US has to be careful.
Bollocks. Ronaldo nearly scored just then. Point blank header but at the keeper.
I think using a fair play ranking might be a reasonable idea.
Beyond that, using any other stat apart from goals scored has the problem that it favors some tactical approaches over others. Although most of us enjoy watching attacking teams play, there still needs to be a place in the sport for defending your way through a tournament and winning it with that one goal on a counter attack.
Poor coverage of what? He’s done pretty well so far this WC to my eyes. Certainly better going forwards than defending, but not a liability.
I demand that ref gives himself a yellow card! 
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLL! Do PortuGALLLLL!! Own goal by Ghana defending a cross.
Portugal scores!
This will please the US, just keep defending and look for a chance.
Omar Gonzalez has been pretty good, but he just got a yellow card.
The US team must be feeling very thankful for Tim Howard. He really is a great keeper.
Is it simplistic and fair to say that without Howard the U.S. would never have had a chance of getting out of their group?
The US has turned out a number of pretty good keepers, so it’s hard to say. It’s fair to say Howard is the best player on the team, though.
Its safe to say that the US would narry be in the world cup without Tim Howard
The US have done pretty well the 2nd half of that first half. For a while the Germans looked to be dominating. The final pass by the US is letting them down.
The US defense isn’t terrible, but it’s not great. Just looking at all of the almost-goals in the first half of the US-Germany game (and some were really, REALLY close) I’d say Howard is the only thing preventing a much worse score right now. Especially in those first few minutes when the US hadn’t woken up and Germany was dominating.
Things are looking pretty good for the US. Even if Germany wins 1-0, the US should be through unless Portugal wins by a difference of 4 or Ghana wins by a difference of 2 , which means either team would have to score at least three goals in the second half.
When you let someone have so much space that they can easily get a cross off, to me, that’s poor coverage. Ronaldo should not have had as much room as he had to get that final cross off in the last game. Beasley needed to close him down. He’s the type of defensive player that I would prey on because I knew I could keep the ball as long as I wanted and then either drive a cross over or run the ball in when they were on an off foot. Muller seams to be doing this. He is free to roam, but he looks to be keeping himself on the right side, which is Beasley’s territory. He was even waving for the ball at one point while he is standing within a foot of Beasley.
Then again, I don’t think I look at soccer the same way as a lot of people. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a girl and think about things differently or what. The men’s game mystifies me. It tends to be about power as opposed to finding a weak point and taking advantage of it the way that me and most of the other girls I played with did. My game was to find either a player to exploit or watch and see how the other team was playing and find the space they typically left open. When a team is trained in a system, you can break that system down.
Nope.
If Germany beats the US 1-0, and Ghana comes back to beat Portugal 2-1, the two teams (US and Ghana) will be equal on points and equal on goal difference, but Ghana will advance on goals scored.