ant- I see that you (if that is you in the avatar) are wearing an Italy shirt- so I am going to assume you are a fan, and also assume you know something about the game. We lost to Ghana for 2 big reasons- 1: A game we absolutely HAD to win to have a chance to make it out of the first round, and Bruce Arena decides to play a 4-5-1; which I hope you know means there is only one striker, and a very tired, ineffective Landon Donovan at that. Do you know that in all 3 games, he had 1 shot on goal? Pathetic. Personally, I would have taken Taylor Twellman, or put Dempsey up top. I have said repeatedly that Arena had NO CLUE to coaching this team in the world cup- and he still has no clue- did you listen to his commentary the other night during the Mexico game? One of his statements as play progressed was "The Mexican team rarely plays any balls over the top"- and 1 minute later, Mexico almost scores on a ball played over the top. It's not wonder that Eric Wynalda was sitting there incredulous, and I don't blame him. 2: We had no continuity during the tournament; as well as they played against Italy, they came out so FLAT against both Ghana and the Czech Republic. My own personal opinion is that the right players were not on the pitch for all 3 games. Each opponent we faced had different game plans and different strengths, and the US team was not prepared to adapt to this situation. We could not get the ball out of our own 1/3 against Ghana, period. One of the big weaknesses of that WC team, and I think GolfHO pointed it out, is that we basically had no midfield- and if you can't control the midfield against world class teams, they will have you for lunch-
lol that is my 16 year old cousin from Montreal in the italia shirt, I am to the left of him and my brother is to the right. yes we are all italian and I cheer for the italian team, could care less about the us team and yes i do know the game
