World Cup Games 6-12 (less the US v Czech - see below)

I missed out on the chance to see the 2 games from yesterday that acted as the bread to the US v Czech Republic game sandwich so I cant really comment too much on them in terms of the game played. Sorry but work does call...sometimes. But what I can do is comment how the Italy v Ghana game will affect the US' chances to advance. From the time the US got the draw way back when, the goal was to get a single point (a tie) from one of the first 2 games and then put the entire tournament on beating Ghana to get them through to the second round. It still seems as this is possible because if they are able to tie Italy, they will have that 1 point they desired. And then if they beat Ghana they will have their 4 points....This is exactly how they got through in 2002, going 1-1-1 and getting 4 points.

So what is the problem this time? The problem this time is that they lost 3-0. When you only get 4 points out of a possible 9 in group play, there will more than likely be another team in the group with 4 points leaving who goes into the next round up to goal differential. In this regard, US is, as they say in Mexico, "chingado". With a -3 goal differential they US will have to either beat both Italy and Ghana, and hope that Czechs beat or tie Italy to avoid a tie breaker in the event that Italy beats the Czechs OR draw with Italy, beat Ghana by a significant margin, and hope the the Czechs can destroy both Italy and Ghana hopefully giving the States an advantage over Italy in goal differential.

The fact that Italy beat Ghana 2-0 puts the US 3 points and 5 goals behind them for second (and they are actually in last place in the group by goal differential) . We have a tough road to ahead of us but if the US are prove that they belong to the elite, the MUST make a better showing than yesterday's performance.

Oh, and a note on the Australia v Japan game...I didn't watch it but it was awesome to hear the Japan were up 1-0 in the 83rd minute and ended up losing 3-1! 3 goals in 10 minutes. AMAZING.

And im out