Today At The World Cup

It was never going to be easy for the United States to advance to the next round of the World Cup, but after Monday’s 3-0 shellacking, it looks like it may be impossible. The Czech Republic scored five minutes into the game on a beautiful header by Jan Koller and the U.S. never recovered.

Claudio Reyna came close to scoring a goal for the U.S. side, but his shot deflected off the post. Reyna was one of the few American players who showed up for the game as the Czech defense stymied the young Americans, Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley as well as, the rest of the U.S. squad.

To make matters worse for the U.S., Italy easily beat Ghana 2-0. Only two teams advance from each group and now Italy and the Czech Republic each have three points meaning a U.S. victory over Italy on Saturday is almost essential.

And don't forget to check out these places if you want to watch a game.

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By Peter Trinkle on June 12, 2006 9:36 PM

Comments [rss]

Tim N.

Letterman put it best:

Top Ten Ways to Make Soccer More Exciting:

#10 LET 'EM USE THEIR DAMN HANDS!

huh?

what does balding have to do with one's ability to stop a soccer ball?

connie stinson

Kasey Keller is America's best Goalkeeper? NO fucking way!!!! the dude is balding badly and looks like he's 40.

tien

even worse is that if the US does advance as the 2nd team out of the group, they would play the winner of group F, which should be brazil.

Dave H.

It's not "go 'England'". It's "Come On England! Come On England!"

Mark

The first goal was Pope's fault, not Keller's.

american in eu

i was in a german bar i brought flags i yelled i screamed i rooted in da fatherland and the whole bar turned against me and my crew and rooted on cz. Soccer is gay and not that exciting me im back on baseball go yankees.check my flickr page for world cup pics

username veyone

JO Mamm

"young americans?" what the hell? they all looked fucking old out there. The goalkeeper for the US keller had a potbelly, looked around 6 feet and was balding. Why can't we get a young, tall fit goalkeeper?

wake me up on Saturday

Only in hitting the goalpost was that a game of inches. Our guys consistently missed their passes and the Czechs didn't. Or you could say our guys were not playing good defense and the Czechs were because the Czechs were always exactly where they needed to be to collect a pass, clear the ball, intercept a US pass, etc.

hab

hey bah, can you fix any of the crap you are complaining about? no... then stfu. stop being so useless.

Anonymous

"Bah" You can criticize my writing, but what was your problem with Keller? I don't see how he could have saved any of those goals.

bah

Oh, and by the way -- the Gothamist comment server's clock is about 70 minutes behind. Looks like it never sprung forward, and needs a winding.

bah

Dang, I guess Peter is as shoddy of a writer as the other Gothamist folk. The last sentence in each of those final two paragraphs was as bad as Kasey Keller's job tonight.

The game against Italy will be a massacre. And we're supposed to be #5 in the world according to FIFA...

mattbernard

Yeah, italy did not easily beat ghana.. ghanas counter attacking nearly produced several goals. i see ghana being a tougher match for the u.s. then italy.

I'm not a fun u.s. soccer, but after seeing a replay of this game, i thought the u.s. was right in there, not so flat footed as everyone is saying. the czech's are just fucking sweet. they say it about baseball, but football is also a game of inches. i see the u.s. tying or beating italy, by an inch.