Match 38 | United States vs Algeria | June 23 | Post-Match Thread [R]

What a great day for US soccer! I've enjoyed reading these posts.

I think it is fair to say (as many have):

(1) All the USA fan whinging over the officials is pathetic. We need to grow up and move on. The officials are part of the game.

(2) A lot of this drama is because the USA has such a hard time keeping a clean sheet, even with one of the best keepers on the planet and against weaker opponents.

(3) Our attack today did look at times like the keystone cops! It was really funny, in retrospect. How many ways can you fail to score?

That said, I challenge anyone to contest that today TEAM USA proved beyond question that they are solidly among the finest sides in the international game. We got bad calls. No problem. We couldn't catch a break on the net. No problem. We went to stoppage time. No problem. This team kept their heads in the game and kept working the program until they found the net. What heart! I totally love it! I am very proud of this team!

I think today we have put the old story that the USA is not a soccer culture (and that we don't know what it takes to excell) solidly behind us!
Even great teams don't always have great days. But by God we did it today, baby!!!!

Go USA!!!

 

Nigeria just needs to find out how to get out of it's own way. Not just in football but in running the country there too. Oh well.

I can agree with your other sentiment as well. The USA takes a bit of the sting out so I still have a dog in the fight, and England still being in it gives the fans over there some hope. You've definitely got the players.

 

It may put me in danger of violating the off topic rule, but some experience can help clarify this. I life in a small midwestern town where American Footbal has ruled for generations. However, the past couple of years our soccer teams have exploded in numbers. Our girl's team for the first time ever this year had a freshman team (albeit with a sophomore goalie). To top it all off, the football boosters are openly complaining that soccer is stealing some of the best athletes from the football team.

Now that is a trend worth repeating....

 

What I couldn't figure out is why Yahia was the one to get the card. There were several guys flipping out on the ref. Yahia (the captain) got them all away from the ref, then seemingly out of the blue got yellowed himself when he turned back to the ref to discuss the situation (which is what a captain does, right?).

Perhaps the yellow was for a foul or something earlier? Because from what I saw, he certainly wasn't the one that deserved a yellow (for dissent)...

 

I'm hoping that, regardless of the poverty level of most nations, it's never implemented.

LandyCakes is dead and buried. Long live Landon Donovan.

(the former was the guy who thought he'd performed at the highest level in 2002. The latter is the guy who still has room to improve and is fighting to get to the top)

 

Is it too early to get cocky?

 

"It is BREATHTAKINGLY exciting."

Ian Darke, after Donovan's winner was scored.


I'm in shock. Still. Hours later.

 

I'll give England the US game but there was nothing that said that England deserved to win the Algeria game. They played poor and they deserved the draw. England deserved nothing better than 2nd place on 7 points because of goals scored.

 

I was kind of wondering that myself. He seemed to be keeping the peace, and I'm pretty sure I saw some spittle come out of one of the other dude's mouth. Perhaps it was simply rectifying the situation, since he really should have been gone after he punched Dempsey in the mouth.

 

It looked to me like Algeria was angry that the ref had called some foul on their guys trying to score, and the ref gave a yellow for dissent.

Just to put those disallowed goals in perspective, there have been alot of outrageous decisions in world cups and these aren't close to the worst. Compare that to the hand of god goal, or Schumacher breaking a Frenchman's leg in the '82 semifinal. Those are much more worthy of complaining.

Yeah, they were lousy calls but if we hadn't made it thru, it would have been because of missing so many chances against Algeria.

But we made it thru!!! Great game Donovan.

 

USA has 2 goals taken away and still gets the #1 spot. do you think they were trying to keep us out?

England only scored 2 goals in the hole group round if they had 2 stolen they would have none!

we deserved the #1 spot we had to work harder then anyone ells BUT WE DID IT!!

 

I didnt think Bradley was the right choice and I wanted him gone during group play of the Confederations Cup but Gulati's support of him has paid off. He has these guys believing they can win and they are playing together.

Donovan "wrote his history" today. That was a clinical finish and a momumental goal in US soccer history. Thank you Bianca for motivating Landon to step up his game.

 

living here near DC after the goal and the win one of our local sports radio stations (normally a baseball/basketball/American football focused and soccer hating station) was extolling the virtues of the victory and even tho it was only a 1 - 0 game, that it was exciting and fun to watch .... normally they just ignore soccer - but they talked about it nonstop for 15 or 20 minutes ... progress takes time but we are getting there.

 

Was it Szaban? I can't wait to hear the Sports Reporters this afternoon.

 

crap I cannot remember which one - it was about 1210 PM local on 980 ....

pretty funny - I watched the game at home with my son (family tradition) and then drove in to work at Ballston - when I got to Ballston a couple of my coworkers said they heard screaming outside after the goal and the game - that it was pretty obvious what had happened ... things are definitely changing when the citizenry goes a little bonkers in public.

good all around ... now on to Ghana.

 

The Algerians were going off on the ref because Yahia was going to get a yellow. As near as I can figure Yahia put an elbow into the back of the head of one of the American defenders during the corner kick and as soon as the ref waved him over the rest of the Algerian players knew he was going to be getting his second yellow. Frankly, Yebda is lucky that he didn't get his second yellow the way he was in the ref's face..

 

A great point. Every WC has plenty of poor offside decisions, several questionable PKs, and always controversial cards and non-cards. The BS call on the 3rd goal -vs- Slovenia was bad, but we see that "whimp out" call by refs all the time...

I'm just glad that the USA has developed an offense that can overcome the bad luck that seems always screwing them at the World Cup. 20 years ago, just one bad call was enough to sink the USA. We didn't have them game to overcome the extra hurdles. Now, times have changed!!!

 

Thanks for the explanation.

I thought that Yebda was a total thug today. If anyone deserved to be sent off it was him...

 

The US needs to score more goals like that last one where the ref didn't have a ****ing chance of making a call.

 

Ah that would be the Locker Room with Kevin Sheeian. That's cool he would take the time to talk about it, considering the Redskins and Wizards usually take a huge amount of time on his show (and the Wizards have the 1st pick in the NBA Draft in a few days)

 

right!

even on that Landy goal I thought they would call a dangerous play foul on Dempsey for hitting the keeper with ball.

 

Okay... After rewatching the game, I have no idea what Yahia did. The only thing I can see is that he put a hand on the chest of a US defender as he went by, but the defender didn't react at all to the contact. Yahia did join in on the scrum going for the header, but the ref blew the whistle before he really got into it. If he did something yellow worthy, it wasn't caught on the ESPN feed.

 

no podemos cantar???

in Spanish the letter "U" is pronounced "oo". and USA is Los Estados Unidos, which would be "ele ay ( as in day ) oo".

pero, no importa nada...