Meanwhile, the USA looks awful, and the Czechs not only look good, but they clearly prepared well specifically for their game against the USA. Sometimes the best offense is a good defense. The Italians certainly think so.
No escaping the group stage this World Cup.
Looks very grim for the US.
I hope Koller isn’t out for the tournament as the CR could potentially go a long way if they had him with them.
Great result for Italy as well.
Why? The Czech Republic were Italy’s strongest opposition in the group from the start, so a high-scoring win for them against the next-best team is arguably the worst result from Italy’s point of view. Add to that the fact that the Czechs looked in great touch, and pretty much the only plus from Italy’s POV is that Koller looks like he’s out for the rest of the tournament.
I think his point is simply that Italy only needs to finish second to advance, and with the USA failing to gain a point in its first match, Italy’s chances improve mathematically. Also, Italy excels at the tactics employed by the Czechs today: focus on defense and score off the counter-attack. If nothing else, Italy’s task is now clearly defined.
Fair enough, but Italy will unlikely be focussing on simply getting through to the knockout stages, in no small part because the runner up of Group E faces the winners of Group F. This may or may not be Brazil; it’s impossible to say. But it will be Brazil. 
No-one in Italy is seriously pondering going out in the group stages. Maybe they should, but I’m pretty sure they’re not…
I’ve got nothing against Ruud; I think he’s great. I was just defining poacher/cherry-picker. Not much of a game for him yesterday, though, but then all the attention on him is probably what allowed Robben to shine.
Yeah, not a very good game by USA today, but a stellar performance by the Czechs. Even with the majority of possession, the USA just couldn’t build anything because there was always a Czech player there trying to break it up. The best performance of the tournament so far, I would say.
OK, Italy pick up three points, which essentially means USA must beat Italy and at least draw with Ghana.
Meanwhile, I’ll be on the lookout for any monkeys flying out of my ass …
If Ghana can tighten up their game in the final third of the pitch then the US has no chance, based on their respective performances today.
Nah, the USA should beat Ghana. Defending that shit will get punished by anyone, and the USA aren’t bad, they’re just … uninspired. They’re a solid team with no real stars, who probably outperform their individual talent levels. By contrast, Ghana appear to be an undoubtedly committed team with a couple of world-class players (Essien, at least), let down by some truly tragic players elsewhere on the pitch coughleftbackcough. USA 2-1 Ghana, I reckon, with Essien sent off in the 57th minute for being a dirty Chelsea bastard (it’s in the rules, check it out).
They are of course buggered against Italy, though, and will lose narrowly in what will be a match of quite staggeringly boring proportions.
Hey, I resemble that remark.
That’s remarkably candid of you. 
That’s why we’re champions.
Just don’t call us “boring.”
If Ghana plays like they did today, no way USA will beat them.
It is, of course, almost impossible for the USA to play like they did today. What happened there? Czech are tough though, and looking good.
Not necessarily. A group with Brazil, Argentina, Italy and Togo would probably be a “really tough group” but not a “group where any team could advance”.
The only way I can see the US advancing is if they beat Ghana (eh, it’s possible) and Italy (good luck) and the Czechs and Italians tie. What a disappointment after 2002! For me, at least–and I hadn’t been able to follow world footy since 2002, really–this was supposed to be the Cup where the US really flexed their muscles and proved to the world that they belonged, and soccer finally got a real boost back here.
But then again–maybe I’m the only one who noticed it, but there seemed to be such a frenzy leading up to the 2002 Cup back here while not many people really talked about it in the days leading up to the tournament this time. Some of the sports talk show hosts are making an effort to get into the game and asking callers to help them understand it, which I really appreciate–but this time around I’m hearing many more of them bashing soccer relentlessly–even the guy who used to do play-by-play for the local team in the WUSA!
I agree with Dead Badger that the second-place team in Group E really doesn’t have much of a chance. You gotta win it all.
Did anyone else watch any of Australia-Japan? I only caught the first half on TV and listened to the rest on XM on the way to school–great game, genius substitutions by Hiddink and Japan really has to worry about letting any more slip away like that. The Japanese looked unstoppable in the first half, and then it all fell apart.
I didn’t see Ghana-Italy on TV–only heard it on XM, again–but I’m not getting what the big buzz over Ghana is. It “sounded” to me like they were out of place and frantic, completely reliant on Essien and unable to give him any decent chances–seemed like a lot of long shots from bad angles because they couldn’t penetrate any further. There were decent stretches of the game I missed due to the vagaries of satellite communications, but that’s the impression I got anyway. I think that if the US can get over the psychological letdown of that 3-0 stinker, they’ve got a pretty realistic chance on Ghana. African soccer is on the rise, but it’s not there yet.
It was entertaining given the finish, but the quality of football was pretty low. These are two teams going nowhere. However, I don’t say that around my good buddy from Perth.
I think that summary of Ghana’s form today is about right. Ghana really only has Essien, so they rely on their best team play to be successful. I think what we saw today is about as well as they can play. Had they played the USA today, they would have won, but they were no match for Italy, despite creating a few chances here and there. They’re not lacking in passion, however.
African footy has been on the rise seemingly for decades, but never seems to fulfill its promise. Whether its the Zambian tragedy in 1993, poor support from their soccer federations (several player strikes have infected African sides in the World Cup), isolation by FIFA until the '80s, or intimidation on the world stage, something always seems to limit the chances of African teams. I wish things would change, as Africa sends scores of great players to play for European clubs, and clearly is loaded with talent.
Subterraneanus, we’re more alike than different in this world, aren’t we? (“Has been on the rise seemingly for decades, but never seems to fulfill its promise” can describe another region of the world too, damned if I can remember which… 
)
Seriously, though, I haven’t been a soccer fan for very long–my first meaningful exposure to the game was in 1999 and I didn’t really get into it until 2001 when I chanced my way into tickets to a New York-San Diego women’s game, after which I split season tickets with the friend who dumped those ones on me until the league folded–but the way I understand it is the African teams really haven’t had that long, relatively speaking, to rise to power. It seemed like the latest dash really started in the Sydney Olympics with Cameroon and this is only the second Cup since then. The first one, Senegal went pretty darn deep, and in this one who knows what Ivory Coast will do? My point earlier was that African soccer is at that stage where it seems like every major tournament sees them field one team that’s really nothing to sneeze at, and hell, I’d be happy if North America could manage as much and we’ve had a lot longer to figure it out.
And USA and Ghana having lost by even wider margins, should eliminate their group as the GoD too.
Whoops, hit enter too soon–after that was supposed to be a:
…but it’s not to the point where multiple African teams are serious threats at one time, the way I see it, but also the way I see it that’s on the way. As unflattering as my review of Ghana was a couple of posts ago, it’s not like they went out and got their asses handed to them right off the bat like the US. They really need to develop more world-class talent if they want to contend in 2010, but I didn’t consider that game a drubbing.
Suppose the US manages to pull out a draw against Italy, and Italy loses to the Czech Rep (both of those results are at least plausible). A win against Ghana could let them advance.
The tiebreaker after points is goal differential, right? I was hoping for at least one goal out of today’s match, even when it was clearly a loss.