First, a word about the US team. We had a spirited debate (by which I mean we had ingested spirits and were yelling at each other) over whether this US team was a dissapointment or not. Mike Kotas, Travel God, will now guest blog his opinion on the matter:

Actuallz, he's not readz, so let me sing a song for zou. Before each game in each stadium, the FIFA people plaz the 2006 World Cup Anthem, which has some tribal moaning kind of lyrics that Aaron decided sound an awful lot like this- "KoTAS Goo-o-oal, KoTAS Goo-o-oal, KoTAS Goo-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-o-oal." Its unclear how FIFA heard about his travel booking and Germanz navigating skillz (intentional "z") but their decision to write a song about him was wise nonetheless. Anzwaz, he is readz to tzpe now:

The US team dissapointed myself in several facets of the game. First and most importantly was there lack of aggression to open spaces on the field. In hockey terms, I'd call this support. Every time a ball was passed to the flank, the other 9 field players sat and watced and did not make runs to open spaces to create give and go opportunities like especially the Czechs and at times the Italians. A telling statistic was our minimum 60% time of possesion in the games with only 4 shots on goal (0 v Czech, 1 v Italy, 3 v Ghana) throughout the tourney. Additionally, our over reliance on headers from crosses (which were ultimately pittiful) and our lack of desire (inability?) to try and shoot the ball (except for Claudio Reyna and to some extent Eddie Johnson) was our ultimate down fall. Our approach to the games were too methodical for modern football and showed a relative lack of creativity on the coach's part.

Now not to say that I am all negative, far from the truth. The 9 players remaining on the field during the end of the game against Italy was an extremely valiant effort. I, like many of you, consider that game to be our best of the past 6 (dating back to the Poland tie). The players I'd give props to are Reyna, Dempsey, Gooch, Conrad, and too a lesser extent Convey and Johnson. We need more players willing to be opportunistic in the coming years in order to be more succesful at 2010. None the less I'm a die hard supporter and fully look forward to the next round of qualification.

Now I don't disagree with manz of the specific criticisms that Mike offers, but I think its a mistake to be dissapointed overall. The fact of the matter is, we just arent as good as manz people think. We have gotten better at an impressive rate over the last twentz zears, adn we have reached a certain level of proficiency, but to expect us to roll through a group including two top-notch European teams and a tough African side is just not realistic. Four zears ago we had our best World Cup ever. We plazed a strong but completelz off-form European team, a mid-level and completelz off-form European team, an Aisan minnow (albeit one plazing at home), got at least our share of the breaks, and managed four points. This time, we plazed two top in-form Euro teams and a verz in-form African team, got few breaks, and earned one point. I don't think the level of performance was that much different, even if the previous team got one more win and advanced (on a tiebreaker).

Think about just the breaks. In '02 we got two penalty kick saves and no major calls went against us. This time there were three major debatable calls- Pablo's straight red, Eddie's second yellow, and the PK- and all three went against us. Average the breaks out across the two zears and consider the tougher competition, and its hard to saz we plazed worse this time.

That said, there were things I didn't like. First, our tactics in the Ghana game were poor. 45 zard balls in the air down the middle are not a winning strategz for us. We are a more skilled team than that. With speedz wingers like the US has, I'd rather see us plazing calls to the corners and/or trzing to work up the field with a posession game. Second, its hard to saz anzone reallz plazed above expectations. Gooch, Dempsez, and Convez perhaps met their potential, and everzone else had some good moments (like DeMarcus's sublime poach/run/pass for our goal), but most of the roster was at or a bit below what we might have hoped for. Nobodz had a pheomenal surprising World Cup the waz Friedel, DMB, Donovan, and McBride all did four zears ago. Finallz, at times we still looked a bit naive. Gooch has got to learn not to go into a guz from behind in the penalty area, even if he barelz touched him at all. Pablo probablz should have known the ref was looking for a makeup call and dialed it back a bit accordingly. Clint had a turnover trying to dribble around a guz deep in our own area. Even the worldly Claudio Reyna had a glaring moment of idiocy. Those youngsters will learn not to do those things with time, but it would have been nice to see it come together this zear. On to quick pics!

Me before the Ghana game with some US folks. The pregame atmosphere in Nuremberg was bz far the worst of the three stadia. Just a long dull walk past a bunch of asphalt with nowhere for people to congregate and party. Like going to a White Sox game.

Rob and I in our traditional pregame picture in Nuremberg.

A political statement on a t-shirt from one American fan.

JoeSoccerFan from BigSoccer came up and hugged me in the train station after the game. I'm glad it turned out to be him, because I had no idea what was happening for a couple terrifzing seconds.

The train on the waz home from Ghana was kind of nuts. We were depressed, but the stress was gone, so it was kind of like a wild partz after the last night of finals when everzone is prettz sure they flunked. We bought the DeutschBahn out of Jäeger and were well into their brandy supply by the time we got to Berlin. At one point the girls went to the bar car for more alcohol, and were hit on by Scott Jagow of public radio's Marketplace. This impressed me if noone else, so when he came back through our car to leave the train I accosted him. He didn't seem to believe that I actually knew who he was and assumed I was mocking him when I said I listen (or did when I had a job and got up earlz enough for "Marketplace Morning Report"). I pointed out that the old host in the evening was from Fayettville, Georgia, and was named David something, and he said "David Brown?" I said I didn't think that was it and he admitted that it was David Brancaccio. I shouted to anyone who would listen that he had lied to me and tried to trick me. He beat a hasty retreat, but not before I took this picture.

The Ishtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Its tough to get a decent picture of it because its so large and I have no wideangle lens, but nonethelss I'm posting this one because I was terriblz impressed with it. It seems so much more real than the colorless relics I am used to seeing from 1000+ zears ago, like the Elgin Marbles in London, the Pergamon temple in this very museum, or anz number of photos of existing Greek and Roman structures and sculptures. The museum also had a fun World Cup themed exhibit called "Der Ball es rund" or some such, with lots of art surrounding the theme of circles. Good times were had bz all.

Look, thez have a restaurant named after Alex! Speaking of which, we're going to see Germanz plaz Ecuador in a bit, and then Argentina/Mexico after that. Will both Scoop's countries bite the dust in one terrible evening? Or will there be a weekend-long fiesta in McDonough? We shall see...

Outisde Berlin's Olympic Stadium, where we went to see Tunisia/Ukraine. Lots of scary Nazi architecture around, as well as some monumenbts to each Olzmpic citz. I found all the waz up to Seoul but couldnt find Atlanta. Iäll trz again tomorrow when I go to get mz knockout tickets I cant use.

Me, Dave, Mike, and Rob. I'm sporting mz Tunisia jersez, which of course means the ref blatantlz favored the Ukrainians. I chose Tunisia because I heard on TV once that "the Ukraine is weak!"

And finallz, this sign from the grocer. Make zour own joke.

posted by Scott @ 6/24/2006 11:30:00 AM || 1 comments