It's over. I dream about it every day for 3 years and 364 days, and when it's over I feel hungover and empty.
I don't know if I'm satisfied with this WC or not. I'm a bit confused about the whole thing. I had as my favorites (odds set by Caesars day before the start of the Tournament) Brazil and England and the obligatory USA patriot bet.
Brazil 6:5 (Diablo's investment-- $ 30.00)
Lost to a strong and overachieving French team in the Semi's with the match of a lifetime by the Legendary Zidane. Ronaldo never looked to be himself, Ronaldinho completely disappeared, and they missed more chances than they scored. Bright Spot: Robinho/Kaka/Cicinho-These kids are the future of Brazilian football, and unless Ronaldinho stops believing his own streetball style hype provided courtesy of Nike, he will only be a shadow of himself in every WC (If Ronaldinho and Robinho work well together we may see the resurgence of a dynasty much the the Pele/Garrincha era.
England 3:1 (Diablo $ 50.00, British friend of Diablo's $ 20 more)
Lost to Portugal in the Quarters with a sending off of the hot tempered Rooney. (Wayne.....stepping on the nuts of another man is never the solution). The backlash of this WC is Beckham stepping down as Captain of the team, and the demolishing of the hope of all England for the "Golden Generation". Poor Michael Owen....enough said. John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Rio Ferdinand all played well, but Frank Lampard is invisible for 88 minutes a match but then shows his brilliance for the other two minutes to justify his starting role. Owen Hargreaves also justified his selection with a strong showing in a utility role playing 3 different positions in this tournament. Once again, maybe next time.
USA 30:1 (Diablo $ 20....because I AM a Patriot)
Shit, why did I even bother? Oh yeah, because this is my country and I may have bought into the bullshit hype that they really were the 5th best team in the world. Rigggghhhhtt. I could go on and on about this team and probably will.
First of all, Bruce Arena has to be one of the worst coaches I've ever seen. He set up the boys to play defensively since he didn't believe in his strikers, and then what happens?? We don't SCORE!!! Idiot. Bruce....4-5-1 is for European teams who have either a very fast highly skilled striker, or a highly skilled strong striker who can hold the ball up and wait for support.
We have neither. Play two up top and let them run!
A good example of how Arena failed the US team is the Italy match. If you're not aware of what happened, I'll set it up for you.
Italy is the team who WON THE WC. Italy scores first after an evenly battled first 20 mins. The US team looks good before the goal and probably feels sorry for itself for a grand total of 10 seconds before battling back bravely and pressuring the rock solid Italian defense into an own goal. Who cares who scored it.....It's in....Against the mighty Italians...sweet, the US team DIDN'T FOLD!!! I can't begin to tell you how amazing this is....US team showing some balls....Go Sam's army!! By now I'm in full patriot mode, wife and son intelligently vacate the premises, and I flip on the surround sound and crank her up, screaming and cursing like a drunken sailor who hit the lottery.
Italy has a man sent off for elbowing our lone forward in the face and bloodying it after about 30 minutes in the first half(good call, referee). Arena still believes we should be on the defensive because Italy is better than the US even with 10 players. Hmmm....... he may be right, but please have some balls. Bruce, at this point you SCREAM.... YES....SCREAM at your players (who mostly play for Euro teams and should fucking know this as my Sunday pub team does) that you DO NOT FOUL Italy at this point. The Referee WILL send a US player off to make it even for the most marginal cynical foul. So what happens, Mathis barely misses with a 22 yard rocket and on the resulting goal kick, takes the ankles of the Italian from behind with his studs up....Cmon, Clint....you're a professional and an AYSO ref would have made that same call. Now usually, this would have been tough to handle, but on top of it our usually efficient central Defender Eddie Pope decides he wants in on the action. That's right, studs up tackle from behind right before the half. No wonder the world thinks we're idiots. Now we're in trouble...10 Italians v 9 US players. The only way we even get to stay even with this powerhouse is that we need to play absolutely perfectly in the 2nd half. This means that every US player is going to have to work at 150% just to keep the score even. Miracle of miracles then occurs.....The US plays out of it's socks in the second half and earns a draw (1-1).
To turn a long story in to an epic, the players do EVERYTHING humanly possible (even scoring in the 2nd half but then ruled offside as a player lifted his leg to dummy the keeper....correct call, bad player judgement) to get up in this match. The US then made a couple of substitutes and then a couple of mistakes.....first Sub was Demarcus Beasley who is usually very good challenging defenses with quick incisive runs(which is EXACTLY what we needed to rest some of our defenders), but after a couple of runs and the goal that was ruled offside, he completely disappeared only jogging slightly when we needed him most. Then Arena replaces Dempsey with Convey????? Are you kidding me??? I mean, no disrespect, but Convey? Where the hell is Eddie Johnson, the wonderkid who can terrorize defenses with a glance, and run until his lungs fall out.
Apparently in Bruces grand scheme of things he decides the US don't even need to use their 3rd substitute even with 2 different players cramping and most others gasping for breath the last 15 minutes. What a joke. Forget about scoring the winning goal which was possible but unlikely, save a few long balls and cutting runs by Beasley and Donavan, you DO NOT use your last sub???? IDIOT.....ABSOLUTE IDIOT. You F-ING use the sub if only to rest one more player and add a bit more energy to your midfield....blow's my mind how this guy still keeps his job. To add insult to injury, he tells the press that it's not his job to win the world cup, it's his job to get them ready for 2010. WTF?????? Oh.....my....god....where do I start? Hide the carbines, and lock him up before kick the eyes out of him. YOUR JOB IS TO WIN EVERY MATCH YOU PLAY. Scoring ONE GOAL in a world cup tournament is an absolute fucking FAILURE on your part. Drawing with a great team is NOT an accomplishment, it's an achievement and not really an impressive one at that when you look at how this team was coached.
GO AWAY ARENA....The MLS is calling, where mediocrity and planning for the future will keep your job.
I just can't go on.....it's already a rant, and I need a beer and a Valium.....
Congratulations Italy. It was ugly, but no one can take away your victory in the World Cup....Forza D'Ittalia......Gattuso is the MAN.
El Diablo Blanco
(praying for the future of US Soccer)
PS: Zidane.....God Bless him......Legendary player........ bad temperament. Doesn't matter what the defender said to you. You let France down.....A sad ending to an amazing career.
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