Three and out
Well that sucked. In losing to Ghana the US got themselves booted from the World Cup. There will be no repeat of 2002, not after this year’s pathetic performance. In three games the US managed to score one goal (they also got an own goal from Italy), Clint Dempsey’s nice goal yesterday. Offensively the team didn’t show up in any of the games. Landon Donovan, paging Landon Donovan. You aren’t a star Landon if you disappear so completely in a World Cup. Did you even make the trip to Germany buddy? Didn’t seem like it. The thing that pisses me off the most is all the whining about refs we heard from players and Coach Bruce Arena yesterday. Yeah, OK, the ref made a bad call and gave Ghana an undeserved penalty kick. You still gave up a bad first goal when Claudio Reyna got burned and you still needed more then one goal to win and you couldn’t produce. And the thing is everything was playing out like you needed it to: Italy beat the Czech Republic. All you had to do to advance from group play was beat Ghana but you didn’t have enough heart to do it, so stop whining, please, its embarrassing.
SI.com’s Grant Wahl give us three quotes from the US squad complaining about the call:
“In 100 years that’s not a penalty,” said Landon Donovan.
“Easily the softest penalty kick of the tournament,” Claudio Reyna added.
“To have to chase the game on that call was kind of remarkable in a game at this level,” said U.S. manager Bruce Arena.
Like I said, shut up guys. Landon you didn’t show up the whole Cup; Reyna the first goal was your fault and Arena, buddy, you coached like a rookie. As Wahl goes on to write:
True, but the U.S. hardly covered itself in glory on the attacking end of the field, either. The Yanks managed only three shots on goal against Ghana (and four in the entire tournament), and their offensive star, Landon Donovan, never displayed any of the dangerous attributes that have made him the U.S.’s No. 3 all-time goal-scorer at age 24.
SI.com’s Jonah Freedman looks towards the future of US soccer:
So let’s look to the future while the body is still warm. We’ve probably seen the last of veterans Kasey Keller, Eddie Lewis, Claudio Reyna, Brian McBride and Eddie Pope. Those are all big cleats to fill.
As Freedman notes, the offical plan is for the US to be credible contenders for the Cup in 2010 in South Africa. Lets just say it seems like we are a little behind schedule.
Foxsports.com’s Jamie Trecker wonders where the US’s heart was:
This American team heads home with many questions. What is the fate of the mercurial Landon Donovan, who looked dazzling against Italy and childish against all other comers? And how could the Americans, even ignoring the inflated status FIFA imposed upon them, show such heart and yet disappoint so utterly?
There is a lot of speculation out there that coach Bruce Arena, who’s stock was so high before the Cup, won’t be back for 2010. Arena has been the coach for eight years which is a really long time to be a national team coach. Arena also seemed unable to push any of the right buttons this Cup and for some reason stayed with the 4-5-1 formation despite the US’s inability to create any offense. Obviously the US needs to regroup. What sucks is that they lost an oppertunity to draw in the casual sports fan. With so much hype leading up to the Cup, the US had a real chance to build their fan support in this country but now they’ve blown that.
The insanity in New York continues
Finally what everyone has expected came to pass: Larry Brown is out and Isiah Thomas is in as coach of the Knicks. Its hard to know really what to say about the Knicks at this point. Last year was, on so many levels, just awful. The fault for that lies squarely on the shoulders of James Dolan, the owner of the Knicks. What in the world would lead a successful businessman to entrust his franchise to Isiah Thomas, first as GM, now as coach and GM? You’ve got to be out of your mind. I mean, has Dolan never met Thomas or heard about what he did to the CBA, the Raptors, the Pacers or the freaking Knicks? Hello Dolan, that guy who’s been spending your money as fast as he can to construct a really crappy team with no hope of winning? Yeah you just hired that guy to coach your team. Good job on that one buddy.
Mike Lupica, columnist for the NY Daily News, generally pisses me off but when you agree with the guy its nice to have him on your side. Today he rips in to Dolan and Thomas:
James Dolan finally fires Brown, a great coach who had a real bad year coaching the Knicks. Dolan does not fire Isiah Thomas, the incompetent general manager who spent $125 million on a Knicks’ team that won 23 games last year, an all-time world’s record sum for incompetence in the NBA.
Thomas has absolutely no résumé that does not involve either dribbling or shooting a basketball. But now he not only gets to keep his current job, he gets another one:
Coaching the Knicks.
It is truly wonderful. Only in an operation run by a lump like Dolan does a job performance like Thomas’ rate what is in effect a promotion. Somehow, though, he has convinced Dolan that only he, Isiah Thomas, really wants the Knicks to win. It is the best lie of all from Thomas, which is saying something.
Its funny how Brown is looking like some sort of winner out of all this. Lets not forget that Brown and the Knicks were not very good last year and that Brown didn’t take anything in stride; rather he complained the entire way, often through the media. Brown is still owed $40 mil which David Stern will decide how much of that he gets. Nice work if you can get it I guess. The irony here is that there is no where to go but up for the Knicks; they probably will play better for Isiah because really they can’t play any worse then they did under Thomas. If anything next year’s Knicks will be a fun circus to watch.
World Cup Fix
Thank God for the Slate’s Explainer. Now we have an answer, kinda, for the most pressing question of the World Cup: What the hell is that stuff they spray on player’s injuries? Well according to the Explainer it’s a whole lot of things, or more accurately, different trainers use different stuff. And more importantly there’s no real proof that the spray, whatever it may be, is actually working. Still good to know though.
Look at Ronaldo. People have been ripping him for his lackadaisical play and for perhaps being a tad heavy. So what does the man do? Why go out and score two goals against Japan in Brazil’s 4-1 victory. Ronaldo was looking a little bored in Brazil’s first two games but clearly he was tired of people trashing him because he look very motivated yesterday. Incidently Ronaldo is now tied for the most goals scored in World Cup history and there is little doubt he’ll own that record by the time this Cup is over.
Nice job Bruins, way to trade away an MVP
For our money the NHL does the best job in handing out their post season awards. They do it like the Oscars, with an award dinner, tuxes and everything. Last night people got their hardware and congrats go to Joe Thornton of San Jose who won the Hart Trophy (MVP), Alex Ovechkin who brought home the Calder Trophy (Rookie of the year) and Miikka Kiprusoff who got the Vezina Trophy (best goalie). Joe Thornton of course was traded away this season by the Bruins. Of course he then went on to lead the league in points, so nice job Boston.
The NBA Draft is coming
We’re only a week or so a way from the NBA Draft people. Oh the suits, the awkwardness. I can hardly wait. As we get closer there will be approx. 1 million mock drafts put out, most of which will have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Ah sports pundits. Here’s one from SI.com that looks at the draft now that the early entry people have declared themselves in or out.
Odds and Ends
Wow, people even do mock NHL drafts. Who knew? This guy has the Penguins taking Erik Johnson number 1 overall. Sounds about right to me.
New MLB Power Rankings out from Foxsports.com’s Dayn Perry. Tigers hold down the top spot. OK here’s a little question for people: If the Tigers are right now the consensus best team in the AL, does that mean people really think they are going to the Series? Over the Yankees, the Red Sox or the White Sox? Its weird, people think they are the best at the moment but I bet few people have them winning the AL.