The Day After...

Who remembers that movie from the 1980's? For those who don't, it's about a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the U.S. and the end of mankind. So, even after yesterday's disaster on the pitch, things COULD be worse, right?

So here we are, a little more than 24 hours after the "loss heard 'round the world," and even though there's much doom and gloom coming from U.S. fans, I don't think it's as bad as some make it out to be. Eddie Pope has already come out and dismissed any notion that this team will implode as they did in '98. Sure, Beasley seems like he's in need of a serious attitude adjustment, but everybody else seems to be on the same page. Whether or not he believed what he was saying at his press conference this morning, Bruce Arena fell on his sword and accepted much of the blame for yesterday. Not sure if he should have thrown some of his players under the bus as he did, but it's up to him to make things right, smooth over any problems, and get this team ready to play Italy on Saturday. I don't think we'll win, but I'm pretty sure the team will at least step it up and play better. That's all we can ask.

Oh, yeah, if you read Steve Goff's chat at washingtonpost.com today, he says, for the first time, that he doesn't think Arena will return as Coach of the team. It's probable that he's taken them as far as possible, and yes, 8 years in that job is unheard of. Question is, whom do you get to replace him? I can't think of any American coach worthy of the job right now, so maybe the Federation needs to look at a Gus Hiddink or Dick Advocaat, coaches who seem to thrive at new challenges and always seem to have their teams ready to play. Anyway, that's another story for after the tournament.

As for today's games:

South Korea and Togo played an interesting match, and it would have been interesting to see the outcome if Togo hadn't had to play a man down for most of the 2nd half. Give full credit to Korea for taking advantage of the numbers (something Sweden failed to do against T&T) and score 2 goals to come from behind to get the win.

France and Switzerland, however, played the most boring match of the tournament. Geez, how can France go scoreless for more than 4 straight World Cup games with Henry and Zidane on the field? Les Blues are simply Les Boring.

The Swiss certainly didn't do much better. Looked like they were simply playing for a result, which isn't bad strategy against the best team in the group, but they're going to have to show some sort of attack if they have any hope of moving forward from this group.

Finally, after watching these teams today, I feel safe is saying that it's REALLY too bad the U.S. isn't in this group. I'd like our chances.

Now, the moment we've all been waiting for...the Brazilians.

Not great, not bad, but efficient, which is usually a word we associate w/ German soccer. Brazil looked like they were barely working up a sweat, pacing themselves as necessary when you will more tha likely play 7 games over the course of 30 days. Croatia played hard and gave a good fight, and that game against Australia on matchday 3 for the group should be a doozy. Great goal by Kaka, and for all the talk about Ronaldinho, I've seen several journalists say this will be Kaka's World Cup. He got a good start on that today...not to mention that I have both him and the Brazil defense for my fantasy team. :) Sorry, had to throw that in there.

I'll be back tomorrow.