The more I watch this game (I DVD record all USMNT games), the more I enjoy it. Check it out...
1- Whether you like it or not, that was our first ever point of any kind in World Cup play on European soil. That is somewhat historic.
2- Dispite the refs mess-ups; giving no warning to Pablo before the red card, and not seeming to remember Pope already had one yellow in the game, and numorous minor calls that are normally never called, the U.S. still played with heart and grit and didn't let the refs get the best of them.
3- Brian McBadass is going to go down as one of the all time greatest players for USA and he had a great game dispite not scoring. The elbow from De Rossi(sp?) was pricless. He took it in typical McBride fashion too; not rolling around, getting up with a 'another day in the office/you can't get to me' attitude (cool as a cucumber and strictly profesional). The blood streaming down his face and jersey was the cherry on top
He is a quiet 'lead by example' guy who shows young USA players how to act in and handle situations like that and this was one of his best games in that sense.
ps-He is a magnet for dirty fouls isn't he? I've never seen any US player get that kinda treatment and it seems like every game he plays in.
4- 9v10 and ITALY still couldn't put us away. The own goal was a great gift, but I feel that we outplayed them over the course of the game givin the surcumstances.
5- This point isn't totally about the Italy game but does pertain to the theme of my opinion about the Italy game. We did about as well as I and most objective people thought we would in this World Cup (I'm not saying I'm in the objective group, just pestimistic about Aggie Football and USMNT games). Here is why I say that; we were in the group of death, played like crap, had one bad call after another against us, the refs (and I hate how this sounds and saying it) screwed us good multiple times, uncharacteristic and characteristic mess-ups by Arena (we all know tactics and in-game adjustments aren't his thing), AND we still managed to come within one goal & a terrible PK call from the second round.
This World Cup wasn't a good one for us, but this game was a gem. And if you can overlook the 2 other games, this is a CLASSIC! If this was a friendly, and not a World Cup game, I feel that more would be happy about the outcome of this match.
So whatcha think?
[This message has been edited by aggiebird02 (edited 6/24/2006 4:07a).]
1- Whether you like it or not, that was our first ever point of any kind in World Cup play on European soil. That is somewhat historic.
2- Dispite the refs mess-ups; giving no warning to Pablo before the red card, and not seeming to remember Pope already had one yellow in the game, and numorous minor calls that are normally never called, the U.S. still played with heart and grit and didn't let the refs get the best of them.
3- Brian McBadass is going to go down as one of the all time greatest players for USA and he had a great game dispite not scoring. The elbow from De Rossi(sp?) was pricless. He took it in typical McBride fashion too; not rolling around, getting up with a 'another day in the office/you can't get to me' attitude (cool as a cucumber and strictly profesional). The blood streaming down his face and jersey was the cherry on top
He is a quiet 'lead by example' guy who shows young USA players how to act in and handle situations like that and this was one of his best games in that sense.ps-He is a magnet for dirty fouls isn't he? I've never seen any US player get that kinda treatment and it seems like every game he plays in.
4- 9v10 and ITALY still couldn't put us away. The own goal was a great gift, but I feel that we outplayed them over the course of the game givin the surcumstances.
5- This point isn't totally about the Italy game but does pertain to the theme of my opinion about the Italy game. We did about as well as I and most objective people thought we would in this World Cup (I'm not saying I'm in the objective group, just pestimistic about Aggie Football and USMNT games). Here is why I say that; we were in the group of death, played like crap, had one bad call after another against us, the refs (and I hate how this sounds and saying it) screwed us good multiple times, uncharacteristic and characteristic mess-ups by Arena (we all know tactics and in-game adjustments aren't his thing), AND we still managed to come within one goal & a terrible PK call from the second round.
This World Cup wasn't a good one for us, but this game was a gem. And if you can overlook the 2 other games, this is a CLASSIC! If this was a friendly, and not a World Cup game, I feel that more would be happy about the outcome of this match.
So whatcha think?
[This message has been edited by aggiebird02 (edited 6/24/2006 4:07a).]
). I think you're a tad more generous to Brian McBride than I would've been, but I suspect McBride's struggles were partly due to lack of midfield pressure. He suffered from the cast around him, no doubt.