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US in a World Cup Hole Early.

Jimmie | June 12, 2006 | Comments (0)

Well, the US certainly stunk up Gelsenkirschen, Germany in their first-round World Cup match, bowing to Czechoslovakia 3-0.

We were the only squad to lose by three goals and much of it, according to coach Bruce Arenas, is due to notable lack of hustle and desire by key players like Langdon Donovan and DeMarcus Beasley.

Beasley, for his part, answered back with petulance.

Later, when discussing the U.S. team’s move to a more aggressive 3-5-2 formation in the second half and Arena’s comments, Beasley added: “I was always defending the whole time. That’s how the game went. Next time I will leave the guy and play as a striker instead of a midfielder and then we’ll see what happens.”

Well, Beasley, I have a better question for you. Why don’t you play the sort of game a midfielder should, dividing his time between marking attackers and moving forward on the offense as the game requires? Obviously your “defending the whole time” didn’t stop the Czechs from putting up three goals, so maybe a bit more flexibility would be in order.

The US is in a tight space now, since Italy defeated Ghana in a later match 2-0. Italy’s win puts the US behind Italy and the Czechs in Group E with a game against Italy coming on Saturday.
I see the Italy match right now as a must-win. If they gain only three points for the tie, then they’re going to have to count on Italy to lose its final game to the Czechs and the Czechs to lose to Ghana in order for them to hae any chance of advancing out of the group.

That’s a long-shot. It’d be far better to beat Italy, knowing that they could possibly settle for a tie against Ghana, depending on the results of the other games before the final group game on June 22. Of course, they have some slight advantage of playing the second game on Saturday, so they’ll know if Ghana wins and tightens up the group or if the Czechs are going to run away with it early.

As a side note, Ghana played very well in its first World Cup game, falling 2-0 to a very strong Italian team. In reality, the game should have been closer and could have ended up as a tie. Ghana was, IMO, cheated out of a penalty kick on a no-call late in the game. Shortly after that, Italy scored the insurance goal to ice the match. Still, Ghana played a very competetive game and may prove to be an unexpected late-round contender.