2010 World Cup

[chrisisoutrunning]

Assuming England beats Algeria by two goals or more (I would think that's a safe bet), to advance the US would first need to beat Algeria, and then in the England/Slovenia match, either one of those two teams would need to win, or the US would need to score at least 1 more goal against Algeria than Slovenia does against England.

 

If they score the same, as far as I can tell... they draw a name from a hat...

 

If they score less, they're out...

[strawbossisevil]

Nuts and bolts, nuts and bolts, we got SCREWED!

Interesting that the official will not say who committed the foul when asked by the players. I think he should be investigated because I see no way any US player could have been called for a foul. If any player was guilty of a foul it was the guy that practically tackled Michael Bradley. I´ve watched the replay over and over, and there simply isn´t anything there.

[Menotti80]

Assuming England beats Algeria by two goals or more (I would think that's a safe bet), to advance the US would first need to beat Algeria, and then in the England/Slovenia match, either one of those two teams would need to win, or the US would need to score at least 1 more goal against Algeria than Slovenia does against England.

 

If they score the same, as far as I can tell... they draw a name from a hat...

 

If they score less, they're out...

 

but if the US beats Algeria by 2 or more goals, the US would get the tie-breaker over Slovenia if Slovenia ties Germany no matter what the score is. The US would advance over Slovenia because of goal differential, which is a tiebreaker before total goals scored.

 

and if germany only beats algeria by 1, there could be a 3 way tie, which would really get interesting...

[strawbossisevil]

Here is are the likely scenarios:

 

Assuming England wins today giving them 4 points.

 

If USA wins by 2 or more goals. They are in no matter what.

If USA wins by 1 goal. It goes to a tie-breaker if England ties Slovenia. If Slovenia loses, USA goes through.

If USA draws. They are out.

If USA loses. They are out.

[RyDogg66]

It'd too bad about the last goal being disallowed. I feel bad for the US team and even the referee. That being said, I cant be too upset, I think between Jim Joyce, this guy, Ed Hochuli, and the NBA we can all say that officiating is INCREDIBILY HARD. I have officiated baseball and football and someone is ALWAYS upset.

[strawbossisevil]

Eric Wynalda, the former US player, noticed that the US was called for a foul on nearly every set piece throughout the game. He comments that on the reversed goal, that there were four people who could have been called for fouls going by the rules of the game, none of them US players.

 

He believes that with the way the game was called, that there is something fishy going on with this referee.

 

What happens if proof is found that this referee was match fixing?

 

Link to the video of Eric and his analysis of the referee:

http://g.sports.yahoo.com...rldcup-19013964/20404937

[RyDogg66]

Well it wouldnt surprise me if the fix was in with the official.

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

I agree, something fishy is going on. That is an even worse call than Jim Joyce's... the US played very poorly in the 1st half, but deserved to win

[chrisisoutrunning]

If there wasn't my only guess would be that he did what NBA refs do on drives to the basket half the time. Just blow the whistle, figure it out later.

 

As bad as that call was, I think the hand ball call against Robbie Findley was a far worse call, maybe not in relationship to the outcome of the game, but come on, the guy gets hit in the face with the ball and he got called for a hand ball?

[chrisisoutrunning]

Well that's definitely not what I expected. England 0 - Algeria 0.

 

Now it's simple, win and move on. If we draw, we'd need a draw from England and Slovenia, and England to score max 1 more goal than we do against Algeria. If they score 2 more, I believe it's a draw from a hat. If they score 3 more, they move on.

[strawbossisevil]

Wow, with Algeria drawing England, USA's chances of making the final 16 improve dramatically.

 

In order to qualify, we need one of the following to happen:

 

1) Any win gets us into the next round. If England and Slovenia tie, we would need to have a better goal differential/total goals to have the top seed guaranteed, otherwise it comes down to a coin-flip.

2) A tie gets us into the next round with an England loss.

3) A tie gets us into a coin-flip situation with England if England ties with a score of two more goals than in our game. (For example, if we tie 1-1, a coinflip would occur if England tied 3-3)

 

We fail to qualify in the following situations:

1) We tie and England wins.

2) Any loss.

[Funketown]

Okay, I think this is how it stands:

 

Slovenia with 4 points, 3 GF, 2 GA

USA with 2 points, 3 GF, 3 GA

England with 2 points, 1 GF, 1 GA

Algeria with 1 point, 0 GF, 1 GA

 

One game to go for each team:

Slovenia vs. England

USA vs. Algeria

 

The first tie breaker, if points are tied, is goal differential.

The second is goals scored.

 

So, here are the possibilities for USA:

 

1) USA beats Algeria

==> USA advances

 

2) USA loses to Algeria

==> USA eliminated

 

Here's where it gets sticky:

 

3) USA ties Algeria

 

a) & Slovenia wins

==> USA advances

 

b) & Slovenia draws with England

==> USA advances as long as they still have scored more goals than

England, as both of their goal differentials would be zero in this

case. For example, if England ties Slovenia 3 - 3 and USA ties

Algeria 0 - 0, England advances. If England ties Slovenia 1 - 1 and

USA ties Algeria 0 - 0, USA advances. If England and USA have the

same number of goals scored after the draw, then it will go to

basically a coin flip. Coin flip is pretty unlikely though at

this point.

 

c) & Slovenia loses

==> USA eliminated

 

 

It would look better if the U.S. had four points, however...

[TooLiveBrew]

I don't even want to say much about the horrid officiating today. Let's not forget he also screwed over Findley on the "handball" yellow card.

 

The 0-0 tie for England is a great result for the US. Just need to take care of business now against Algeria on Wednesday.

[Menotti80]

another thing to keep in mind is that if the US wins, they will actually win the group if slovenia loses or if slovenia ties and the US scores more goals than Slov.

[strawbossisevil]

Yeah, if we would have won rather than drawn today, we'd be looking at only needing a draw to advance, with a win guaranteeing us the top spot in the group.

 

Now, there is no guarantee, even with a win, that we'll have the top spot in the group, and there is still a significant chance that if we go on that we'll be facing Germany in the round of 16. I would prefer that we not have to play Germany in the knockout rounds, they looked very strong so far, even today while playing a man down.

Edit: Menotti, England can still claim the top of the group quite easily if their goal differential in the final game is bigger than ours. For example, if both England and the US would win by one goal, USA would likely get the top spot (unless England would win 4-3, while we win 1-0), but if the US wins 1-0, while England wins 2-0, England would take the top spot based on having a +2 differential vs. our +1.

Best case scenario for the US would be to win vs. Algeria and for England and Slovania to draw (I think Slovania will be playing for a draw, so this isn't out of the question).

[Menotti80]

well if Ghana wins tomorrow, which they should, Germany will have to beat Ghana to take the top spot, in a match where Ghana would be playing for a draw.

[TooLiveBrew]

1.29.10 article on the controversy surrounding the selection of Coulibaly to ref the African Cup of Nations final

[Baldkin]

US looked so much better running a 4-3-2-1 in the second half with Altidore all alone up top. Midfielders better knew (or better followed?) their responsibility and they actually were getting back on defense and controlling the middle of the field.... not leaving the defense out to dry.... which, basically cost them both goals this game.

[Diskono]

Agreed, Altidore handled the lone striker role very well. We knew he had the tools, but its great to see him put it all together after a rough season.

[chrisisoutrunning]

After watching the disallowed goal about a dozen times, the ONLY thing that could have been called against the US was a little bit of a shove that Dempsey did. As everyone was moving forward to the ball he gave the defender marking him a little shove in the back. Unfortunately, this was right in front of the referee. Should it have been a foul? I don't think so. At the very least it was nothing compared to the "hugs" gave to Bradley and Altidore, and the headlock that was given to Cherundolo...

[trwi7]

Coulibaly facing a performance review and will likely be excluded from the rest of the World Cup.

[strawbossisevil]

The more I watch it, the more I'm convinced that this official had his mind made up to blow the whistle before anything happened. The video actually seems to show him blowing it before Edu even approaches the defender.

 

This official is either A) extremely horrible at his job or B) not interested in calling a fair game.

 

If it is A, why was he officiating a game in the World Cup?

If it is B, FIFA needs to make an example of him so that these things don't happen in the future.

 

When calling back a goal, especially one that close to the end of the game, and that important of a goal, you had better be 100% sure that the foul call is completely justifiable before you blow that whistle.

 

If an official made a call like that against some of the countries with more chaotic fan bases, he would be fearing for his life right now.

 

It's just too bad that a whole country's fans have to suffer disappointment because of the moronic call of someone from Mali. The game should be about the failings/successes of the players on the pitch, and not some noob ref.

I, personally, hope he never gets to set a foot on the pitch during a professional game again.

[bacon06]

Does the US have a single midfielder that checks back to the ball when the defenders have it? I am so sick of seeing the defenders play a hopeful long ball to no one in particular because they have no one within 30 yards to pass to.

[GameMisconduct]

Does the US have a single midfielder that checks back to the ball when the defenders have it? I am so sick of seeing the defenders play a hopeful long ball to no one in particular because they have no one within 30 yards to pass to.

I thought Torres did a good job of getting touches where he could feed the ball into space for the forwards. Granted Torres leaves a lot to be desired on the defensive end. I wonder if Bradley is going to change from a 4-4-2 scheme to more of a 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1 scheme for Wednesday's game. Seemed like having more guys active up top actually trapped a lot of passed toward midfield.

[Paulus88]

Does the US have a single midfielder that checks back to the ball when the defenders have it? I am so sick of seeing the defenders play a hopeful long ball to no one in particular because they have no one within 30 yards to pass to.

No, and it's the reason why the US struggles offensively.  That said I thought Bradley played much better yesterday. I thought Torres was positioned too defensive which limited his effectiveness going forward.  I don't know if that was on Coach Bradley or Torres. They did much better when they had midfielders closer to the attack in the second half. 

Now if they could only play like they did in the second half to start the game Algeria won't be able to get any kind of rhythm.