Is that right? If it is, then that sucks. Do you think we will have anything left in the tank? My biggest hope is that we don't stop here and think we have won the world cup. My second biggest hope is that we play ghana. I like our chances against them over serbia or germany. Is it possible for ghana to finsh second or is it 1st or out for them?
It doesn't matter. We'll have the same amount of rest as our opponents (a couple hours more, actually) and so will they.
Whoever we play will have had 4.5 hours less rest than us. Let's hope our opponent has to give it all today so they are just as gassed. Personally, I don't worry about our fitness. That's one area where we have always excelled.
The key is to have mental fitness I think. This game was exhausting mentally. Still, while we play on Saturday, it's not like we have to play tomorrow already like in BB or hockey. The US'll be fine.
Either the winner of group D or the winner of group C needed to play on Saturday. While the runner up of one of those groups needed to play on Sunday. Just works out that the winner of group C plays the runner up of group D on Saturday and vice versa on Sunday. I don't think there is really away around it and I don't think it is a big deal as our opponent is playing this afternoon as well.
The important thing is that we ARE playing on Saturday. That means not only did we advance but that we won our group.
who would you like to see us play? I think ghana because they are naive tactically relative to germany and serbia ( I hope these are not famous last words) and we can trick a victory against them. Also, do you think our guys will be mentally up for the saturday game?
Playing the earlier game could work to our advantage... Our fitness and our players' ability to recover on a short turnaround could well be better than a potential opponents'. Which could give us an advantage late in the game on Saturday.
Assuming Gooch and Findley come back into the lineup, two of our players will come in rested. (I know everyone thinks Findley has been poor, but I'm not sure Bob will agree, especially considering he went with Gomez today over Buddle.) Also, it's possible Rico Clark (or even Holden or Benny) could make a return to the lineup too. One of the nice things about how this has unfolded so far is that Bob has utilized a lot of players on the roster, so there are many players who are fresh but have already been blooded in this tournament. The only one who I think may be in the doghouse right now is Torres.
No worries, it just creates another wonderful opportunity for those of us in East Asia to extend Saturday night with some football potentially accompanied by a longer night of boozing, ease into sunrise as the Yanks ideally go marchin' on to the quarterfinals, and wallow into Sunday morning with victory in our hearts and a well deserved, delayed siesta. Go USA!
Bracket suggests probably Serbia. http://malawi.worldcupblog.org/team-news/fifa-world-cup-south-africa-2010-prize-draw.html
One reason why I think Gooch sat today. BB evidently figured Gooch only had 1 game in him this week, and would be better used against the more physical Germans/Serbs/Ghanans than the speedy Algerians. We really only have to worry about our key guys (Donovan, Dempsey, 'Dolo. MB, & Altidore). CBs don't run much. Bornstein may be replaced by Gooch. Edu didn't play a full 90 (Clark didn't play at all), and Findley is rested.