The Czech Republic clearly superior in every phase of the game, essentially ended any US hope of escaping from the tough Group E. The 3-0 dismantling left the US looking doubtful and exposed the idiocy of the FIFA rankings for what they are. The US is clearly nowhere near 5th in the world.
Despite the easy win, the match might also end up hurting the Czech’s chances down the road. Their mountain, and scorer of the first goal, Jan Koller went out with an apparent hamstring problem. He would be a major loss to that team.
Tomas Rosicky, on the other hand, is going to be amazing in an Arsenal kit this year. He took over after Koller was carted off and put in the other two excellent goals.
About the only hope for the US now is that they looked so pathetic and overmatched today that Italy and even Ghana may underestimate them in the next matches. It would be hard not to. Who was even on the pitch for the US? Keller couldn’t be blamed for not stopping any of the rockets past him, and Reyna was okay. The rest of the team may as well have been wooden cut-outs.
Posted in: World Cup
Very disappointing. They looked terrible from the opening minutes.
I don’t think this kills the US’ chance at advancing, but much like last World Cup, it’ll depend greatly on how the other three teams play. Hopefully, Arena will stick with the second half line-up in the next game. Both Eddie Johnson and John O’Brian played amazing compared to the rest of the guys on the team…
Arena singled out Beasley as one of the guys who contributed nothing.
After watching Italy play, it’s hard to imagine how the US will have any chance against that team.