World Cup Blog – Day 8
Yesterday we saw the floodgates open with10 goals in 3 matches. To the casual fan wondering where the scoring was, hopefully that appeases them. The reality is that teams are extremely conservative in the first round… too much to lose with a loss. Now things open up a bit, and it’s been a great couple of days.
Today has to be one of the most entertaining days in recent Cup history. A dynamic Germany squad fell victim to terrible officiating and a storm of yellow cards that turned red. Vidic almost “handed” them the equalizer, but a huge PK save gave Serbia the three points. I don’t understand why everybody thinks they’re Maradona, swinging arms around in the 18 trying to slyly misdirect the ball. It seems to me that it’s a risk that is ludicrous unless a goal is imminent, not just possible.
The US/Slovenia game was another up and down (or should I say down and up) game to watch. As easy as it is to get caught up in the emotion of the comeback, and the disallowed goal, I am very concerned about our shoddy defense and offensive threat.
Allow me to get a little “coachy”: Onyewu is understandably not up to speed after his knee injury, I wouldn’t mind bringing Bocanegra central for a bit more cover… they have a history of playing together back there and Carlos brings a more vocal presence than Gooch. In the midfield, I know we like the luxury of Donovan/Dempsey on the outsides, but we need to come to the realization that we’re just not good enough to pull that off. Altidore is not primary target material yet (maybe in 2014)… he needs to be paired with Dempsey up top. Dempsey can handle the role better and Altidore will be free to create chances like he did on the game-tying goal. Findley shouldn’t see the field again, but that took care of itself after his second yellow card ruled him out against Algeria.
Finally, the England/Algeria draw adds a ton of intrigue to the matches next Wednesday. Everybody has a chance to advance… the US moves on with a win, and maybe even a tie (definitely if England loses to Slovenia, and probably if England ties Slovenia). If England fails to advance past the group stages out of what their papers widely labeled as an “EASY” group, it would be considered a national crisis.
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