What the Hell Are You So Happy About?

WOO! LANDY! Hey, no disrespect with the name. I'm not calling you, "Mandon" lest you sound like a gay porn star. You've definitely graduated from "Landycakes," although I may throw that one in affectionately every now-and-then. And not so affectionately if you come to D.C. in a Galaxy uniform. If the Germans can call Schweinsteiger, "Schweini," you can be "Landy."

Okay, I am euphoria-ed out. No, really, I was happy yesterday, giddy even. The result is fantastic, 1st in the group ahead of England with a chance for revenge against Ghana, who knocked us out of the tournament in Germany (Honestly, we lost that game more than Ghana "won" it). Moreover, the U.S., under a lot of pressure and giant spotlight, came through. I suppose the "end" justifies the "means," since there are no points for style and sports are results-based in the end. I just don't think the "means" that the U.S. has shown will get them as far as they can go.

Here's the crux of it: I think the U.S. still choked a good bit. That England game should have been a loss, if not for a goal-keeping error. Holding England 1-0 still wouldn't have been bad, except that England barely made it out of the group (that Slovenian keeper is awful at close range shots - I know he's "highly-rated," but I think a good keeper (Howard) saves both Donovan's and Defoe's strikes). England played really, really poorly. Not as poorly as, say, France or Italy (laughter ensues), but poorly enough. Maybe England is ranked too highly in general, but they should have been able to defeat Algeria and probably should have handled Slovenia more easily. Gave up an early goal against England, TWO first half goals to Slovenia (Algeria held them to one), and took until 90+ to score on Algeria. Sure, Algeria had a decent defense, but how many chances did the U.S. miss? We were fortunate that this tournament is crazy and that we had a weak group. I predicted that we wouldn't make it out of the group, true. I'm glad I was wrong. However, I don't believe that the U.S. can continue as it has. It has to show the team we saw at the end of the Confederations Cup. Make no mistake - we have not seen that team yet. We've seen the team the won the group in qualifying, but this has been far from the U.S. at their best.

Drawing England with a soft goal, coming back to draw Slovenia, squeaking out a win against Algeria - it's good that the U.S. got results while playing somewhere between good and mediocre. But they did so against weak teams, that's hardly convincing that we're ready for the big kids on the block. . Maybe Ghana will bring it out of them. However, that is another game that, by most analysis, the U.S. should win. I hope for a win. More than that, I hope for something to give me hope for an upset when we play a team that should be better than us.

Do we expect too much as fans?

I wonder. Are we expecting too much?

Is it too much to expect good teams to play atleast decently? Is it too much to expect referees to call a good match? Is it too much to expect FIFA to look at video technology? Is it too much to expect Fabio Capello to pick his team by form rather than by names like he promised? Am I asking too many questions?

Today has seen three games with horrible results. Germany was robbed first thing this morning by a referee who was card happy and sent off Miroslav Klose in the first half. In the second game, the USA was robbed of three points by a ref who disallowed a goal wrongly and didn't see the Slovenian players hugging several Americans to the ground. In the third game the ref was not the problem. The players for England can't seem to get over themselves to actually try and Capello can't be bothered to make tactical changes when for the England v. USA game it was apparent that Heskey was useless. Gerrard gave up around the 65th minute today. Even Rooney gave up. Capello was just lucky that David James didn't manage to lose the game for him.

So we now stand at an interesting point. It is no longer a question of whether England or the US would finish first in the group, but more likely who of those two might actually get out of the group, but I'd even argue if either can get out of the group. Both England and the US could easily lose next week. I actually feel bad for US fans such as my partner in this blog, and English fans.

The delusion is over

The first thing I said to my co-conspirator on this blog when we were watching the game was "Capello's starting Green?!? Mistake." And all day long I was saying I saw a draw, 1-1 or 0-0, but I was leaning to the score draw. And as I saw the starting lineup I got more confident with my prediction.

There were huge errors in the starting lineup. I have been saying for weeks that I thought Crouch should start rather than Heskey. Capello has no left winger on the squad, and starting an unfit Milner was stupid. We all know that Gerrard and Lampard can't play together. And Robert Green should never been the number 1.

First let's start with the Defense. I thought the starting back four was rather decent. King and Terry seemed to work well together, and the full backs were nothing special but I felt like they didn't make any major mistakes. When Carragher came on in the second half, I just knew it would be ugly, and he was terrorized by the stronger and faster Jozy Altidore.

In the midfield, it was anarchy.I think it was clear that James Milner had not gotten over the 'bug' he had this week and was not fit to play. He was slow and out of position and all together, he never had a chance to show his quality. On the right, Lennon kept being double teamed as the US midfield and defense forced play to the left side where Shaun Wright-Phillips came on for Milner and was rather poor. Lennon never had a chance to play his game and as usual, England forced alot of play up the left because the US shut off the space for Lennon and Capello couldn't be bothered to bring a left-footed winger(like Adam Johnson) or play Joe Cole who can be quite handy over there. In the middle, I think there was a clear hole where there should have been a holding midfielder. Though I still argue bringing Gareth Barry was a mistake, I think that he would have been a big help. And as I mentioned already, Lampard and Gerrard should not play in the middle together. They are both playmakers and seemed to get in each other's way quite a few times. before the game I would have argued for benching Gerrard, but Isomeone brought up a good point that Lampard's record for England is poor while Gerrard's is very good. But in the end, Capello needs to grow some balls and bench one of the two and play a balanced team.

Up front, it was a similar story. Capello started Rooney and Heskey. I don't think there is anyone that wouldn't start Heskey, but in my opinion, Heskey should have not even made the final squad for the World Cup. Heskey did little to make me believe that I was wrong about him. He brought down a few balls and lost them, put out a poor pass which was lost, or put a horrid shot right into Tim Howard's Chest, and that was after putting his boot into Howard's chest which he must have thought would make him drop those shots. I thought when Crouch finally came on, the possession was cleaner and Crouch sharpened the attack again after the lovely build to the early goal. Rooney was not up to his game, which was surprising. Rooney could not get things going and he got frustrated and once that happened, he was never going to doing anything and Defoe should have been put on to try to sneak that winner that never came.

Finally, what can I say about the keeper? A simple "I told ya so." Or maybe a "DUH!" Or maybe to use some tact, "Bad Capello! Bad!" Of the 3 keepers he brought we have a relegated keeper (who has been amazing for the final few weeks for Pompey), a nearly relegated keeper(who was responsible for many of the goals given up by West Ham), and a midtable keeper(who was consistent all season long and was a huge factor in the team being as good as it was). Based on those kind of statements there should be two obvious conclusions. First, Robert Green is absolutely no better than third. Secondly, Joe Hart is probably first due to his consistency. And this is before we even consider that David James is known as Calamity James. I think it was a mistake to start Robert Green. Fact! But it also now makes more problems as He either has to put the arm around his shoulder and start Green again, or bench him at which point he might as well be sent home. So it's either put the team in danger for the final two group games or leave yourself with two keepers. I think unfortunately, it's time for Green to go home and Hart to begin his national team Career as he is the future for England.

So there are two more group games. Algeria and then Slovenia. I think considering that the Group D winner plays the runner up in group C, it is going to be important to win this group especially after seeing the Germans dismantle the Aussies. I think both England and the U.S. are in the same position and both know this. It is going to come down to goal difference as I think both teams will step up their games. I think considering this, i would have to conclude that the team that could score more goals is England considering the scorers that the team has. England has so much talent that the nation should be severely disappointed in the draw, although I told Skippy that I didn't think either team deserved a point from that game. The U.S. was poor but should have won with the vastly improved second half performance and England Should have scored 5 times in the first half hour. In the end, the group is wide open with Slovenia taking three points against Algeria. Time to be positive again...

Ubiquitous World Cup predictions

Apparently, every good blogger needs to make his or her predictions for the tournament and far be it from me to buck the trend. I assume his Truthiness doesn't want to get involved in something so pedestrian. But me? Hell, I ain't proud.

-----

Group A: Mexico, France - I know, right? France? Really? The funny thing is that a lot of good teams (see: Italy 2006) are forged in the fires of adversity. I think France will be one of them, if they can keep Ribery off the teen girls and Henry's hands in his pockets.

Group B: Argentina, South Korea - S. Korea by virtue of Nigeria and Greece imploding. I don't know why, neither team fills me with confidence.

Group C: England, Slovenia - The U.S. will not make it from this group. They could, but after losing to England, I think there will be a surprise defeat to Slovenia. Because that's how we roll.

Group D: Germany, Australia - Australia over Serbia by virtue of tenacity. Australia won't play pretty, but they'll win.

Group E: Holland, Cameroon - I don't think the Danes or Japanese have it in them to pull an upset.

Group F: Italy, Slovakia - It's a toss up for second between Paraguay and Slovakia, but I think Slovakia will get a draw where Paraguay gets a loss.

Group G: Brazil, Cote d'Ivoire - Portugal and Ivory Coast can duke this one out, but I think African support puts Ivory Coast over the top.

Group H: Spain, Honduras - No, not really Honduras, but second is up in the air in this group, so why not Honduras? It doesn't matter, none of them are beating Brazil next round.

-----

Mexico over South Korea - Yeah, I hate Mexico winning too, but that's what I see happening.

Argentina over France - Which team was more screwed up coming into the finals? That's debatable, but I think Argentina is a better team on the field.

England over Australia - Because the English are so distraught to be playing in a former colony that they have to take it out on their former colonies.

Germany over Slovenia - No real upsets so far and I don't think this one is the first.

Slovakia over Holland - There's the first upset. I just think the Dutch will trip over themselves.

Cameroon over Italy - Italy's overall age gets to them playing so many games in such succession.

Brazil over Honduras/Whomever - You're shocked, I know.

Spain over Cote d'Ivoire - Or over Portugal. Portugal might actually give them more a game, but Spain will triumph in any case.

------

England over Mexico - Closer than their friendly meeting, but I think England prevails.

Argentina over Germany - These are getting tougher to call, but I don't think Germany has performed well against strong opposition.

Brazil over Slovakia - Not even close, Slovakia will have nothing left after defeating the Dutch.

Spain over Cameroon - Sorry, gotta go with the odds on this one.

------

Brazil over England - England will play a game that they should win, but manage to blow it.

Spain over Argentina - This is where Maradona fails as a coach. Spain is an equal, if not superior, team and Maradona can't cope with that.

-----

Spain over Brazil - Spain scares the crap out of me. Spain has enough star power to light Johannesburg for a century, but what's really horrifying is that they play like a club team and combine exceptionally well. Brazil plays well as a team, but not with the attacking lethality of the Spanish.

-----

So those are my predictions. I don't know that they really are, to be honest. Take this as my take on the most interesting of the plausible scenarios in my brain. If I actually thought this game was close to predictable, I wouldn't bother watching.