The Haphazard Blog

Following the tough loss last night to the Lakers (the refs were terrible, favored the Lakers all series, but LA also had really good defense in the 4th quarter),  the U.S. got a taste of the bad refereeing that robbed them of a 3-2 lead with just a few minutes left in the game.

Some more thoughts on the U.S. game/team and the World Cup in general.

Enough with the vuvuzela whining! It’s not that big of a deal. There is constant noise and horns during every game. This is just more white noise that sounds different.

Looks like today was the day for terrible officiating. 9 yellow cards in the Germany-Serbia game. The referee in the U.S.-Slovenia game left his glasses at home. Gave Findley a yellow card (and now he misses the next game) for a hand ball when the ball hit him in the face. Clint Dempsey got away with an elbow to the head in the first couple minutes. And obviously the goal cancelling foul was the most egregious. I would really like to know what he saw.

The goal scored by Maicon (from Brazil) was amazing, but I think the goal by Landon Donovan today tops it.

Is the U.S. team planning to participate in a Pageant?

Argentina looked a lot more aggressive in their second match. They showed why a lot of people think they will win the World Cup.

It looks like a lot of teams played their first game tentatively figuring they’d rather have a draw than lose. On the flip side, almost everyone will be playing to win in their third games.

The U.S. went from having to win by 2 over Algeria to guarantee a spot in the 2nd round to only needing to win with England’s tie. Other possibilities:

• They lose and go home
• They tie and England wins, they go home
• They tie and England ties and England scores 3 or more goals vs. Slovenia than the U.S. scores vs. Algeria, they go home
• They tie and England ties and England scores 2 more goals vs. Slovenia than the U.S. scores vs. Algeria, it comes down to a lottery
• They tie and England ties and England scores 1 or less more goals vs. Slovenia than the U.S. scores vs. Algeria, they advance
• They tie and England loses, they advance

Long story short, if the U.S. ties, hope that England loses or ties and only manages to score no more than 1 more goal that day than the U.S. If England ties and scores 2 more, our hopes rest on a coin flip.

Next week will be crazy. 4 games a day Tuesday through Friday.