Day 1 is in the books and what do we have to show for it? Aside from an epic South Africa goal, right, we're left with two draws, a bunch of questionable refereeing and inane analysis from Alexi Lalas. Lord help us, hopefully Day 2 is a lot better tomorrow.Can't wait for U.S.-England and Argentina-Nigeria too. Any day you get to see Messi play, it's a good day and hopefully he cuts loose and plays like the hero he is for his country. His ineffectiveness for Argentina is a big and overlooked storyline so far; and don't forget Dummy Diego Maradona. If anyone can screw up a good thing for Argentina, my money is on Maradona more so than Messi.
The story of U.S.-England will be the American defense. If Rooney is less than 100%, the U.S. has a chance to steal a result, especially without Ferdinand in the back. Criticize him all you want, but the man is a veteran and a solid player. For consistency's sake, his absence will hurt England.
But the U.S. back line is a fright. Oguchi Onyewu is a shell of himself and if he can't challenge John Terry and Peter Crouch in the air, it's going to be a lonnnnng day for Tim Howard in goal. If the rest of the backline blubs in Bornstein, Bocanegra, DeMerit, Spector et. al. don't play the game of their lives, see the above as well.
Tim Howard, I fear, will have to be a big-time hero for the U.S. to earn a precious point, or 3.
Either way, you have to figure it's gotta be better, in terms of quality of play, than Day 1.
1 comment:
Disappointing day my friend. For one, I expected Mexico to do a lot better, that second half was horrendous. Secondly, much to my delight France won't be winning anything else until the next Platini or Zidane come along. Not even Platini who seems to still be giving his contribute to the FFF.
Uruguay was equally disappointing, there's no one to connect their game, and Forlan can't carry that team, despite having the wining goal at his feet today.
Hoping day 2 brings an Argentina ready to make a serious run, and a good result for USA, which won't have to be a win necessarily.
Also looking forward to seeing Slovenia.
Sweet Cup dreams
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