U.S. Ousted from World Cup (Crapola)

As everybody knows by now, the U.S. men's soccer team lost their final match against Ghana today 2-1 in Nuremberg, Germany (of all places). Their pitiful 2006 World Cup record was 0-2-1. Landon Donovan was not able to repeat any of his glory from 2002 when he scored two goals in the World Cup. Coach Bruce Arena continues to blame everything on the refs or even the poor play of his players. I sincerely doubt Arena will continue much longer as the U.S. team's head coach. He doesn't energize the players, and he doesn't seem particularly brilliant with strategy during the matches. He does have a lot of experience, but hopefully we can find another American coach with a more winning attitude for 2010.

Clint Dempsey scored the only legitimate goal of the tourney for the U.S. (an Italian player scored their other goal by mistake). Here is a poignant quote from today's SF Chronicle (online):

"It was the first goal by a U.S. player in the World Cup in 338 minutes. Dempsey did his rap dance as Americans celebrated."

I saw Dempsey do this same "rap dance" thing in San Francisco after he scored a goal at the exhibition game against Japan several months ago. The main credit should probably go to DaMarcus Beasley for a perfect assist to Dempsey right in front of the goal, but I give credit to Dempsey for finishing the score with authority. Too bad the Ghana team scored their second goal less than five minutes later on a superbly executed penalty kick (that should never have been called, but that's beside the point now).

Who to root for in the second round? My favorites to watch anyway are Brazil (Brasil) and now Ghana. I would also like to see Mexico and Italy do well for various reasons. Having said that, England would be my top choice to win it all just because, well, I have British roots so what the hell. I think the rest of this World Cup is going to be fantastic. Too bad mainstream American TV hasn't got a clue and will no doubt screw us over in the coverage every chance they get.

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