[blueandwhite]

big for the Americans, I'd say. a shocker for the Italians. lots of red cards.

final note from yahoo world cup site:
Italy ended the night top of a very tight Group E, one point ahead of Ghana and the Czech Republic, prior to next week's showdown with the Czechs. The USA kept their hopes of qualification alive after playing almost the entire second half with one man less than the Italians.

exciting soccer.

[Lefty Noob]

I love it, but we got plum lucky. It was 1-1 thanks to an Own Goal from Italy. We're 0-1-1 and our players haven't actually scored a signle goal yet. Doesn't look good for the good ol' U.S. of A.

[desertrat]

The way Ghana dominated the Czechs today, I am concerned that we may very well lose that game. If not for the stellar play of the Czech goalkeeper, the score could have easily been 5-0 or worse. The USA team will have their hands full on thursday.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by Lefty Noob

I love it, but we got plum lucky. It was 1-1 thanks to an Own Goal from Italy. We're 0-1-1 and our players haven't actually scored a signle goal yet. Doesn't look good for the good ol' U.S. of A.

Lucky?...The Ref handicaps us with two Red cards that where really, really bad calls...and takes away are momentum...how is that luck?...We were robbed!

The USA actually looked really good in this one...we played in their zone until those pesky red cards...the offense was aggressive...Italy's goal came on a mistake by defender Eddie Pope...it was a much, much better performance than the score shows.

[legend]

How does a known corrupt referee, one who was suspended in South America for six months for it, wind up doing a game on the sport's biggest stage? Is there that few soccer refs in the world? Do you know how bad it must be if you are suspended in South America?

[blueandwhite]

what's that story? - I've yet to hear about this.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by blueandwhite

what's that story? - I've yet to hear about this.

They were saying after the match that this Ref had been suspended for "Irregularities in past matches"...or in other words for calling fouls that were questionable like in this match...he did not belong on the big stage...and he screwed up the US chances to win.

[legend]

This ref was more than irregular, he was suspended for some sort of corruption. If we wanted corrupt refs, we could have gone to the NBA or the NFL for those.

[Lefty Noob]

Anyone know what exactly he was suspended for? Was there a particular incident?