[Vision2020] US victory??

[David Williams]

Well, the US soccer team finally showed up for the 2006 World Cup.  The 
match against Italy on Saturday was the gutsiest, grittiest, 
grind-it-out-to-the-90th-minute game of the tournament.  The resurgent 
Americans, soundly thrashed by the Czechs 3-0 a week ago today, outhustled 
and outplayed a strong Italian team throughout most of the game.  An amazing 
37 fouls were committed by both teams, and 3 red cards awarded (2 to the US, 
1 to Italy).  Sadly, I was unable to watch this game live, since a friend of 
mine foolishly decided to schedule his wedding at the same time the match 
was aired.  But I had a buddy feed me live updates via cell phone.  Here's 
what happened, at least from my perspective:

After the wedding ceremony (about 30min. long), Nick called me with an 
update, saying the Italians had scored first.  This was a big blow, seeing 
as the American strategy hinged on drawing first blood.  But while he was 
describing the Italian goal, he began yelling into the phone that we'd (the 
US, I'm American, you see) scored on a free kick.  Immediately following 
this (a few seconds) he began yelling again.  This time it was because 
Italian midfielder De Rossi received a red card for elbowing US forward 
Brian McBride in the face.  The score was now 1-1, and we had a man 
advantage.  This was not to last, however, because in the 44th min., right 
before halftime, US midfielder Pablo Mastroeni received an red card for a 
'studs up' slide tackle.  So at the half, the score was tied, and both teams 
were playing with 10 men.  In the first two minutes of the second half, 
Eddie Pope received his second yellow card, and was sent off the field, 
leaving the US with 9 men to Italy's 10.  Though we were at a disadvantage, 
the US played Italy to a 0-0 draw in the second half.  DaMarcus Beasley even 
managed to put one in the back of the net for the US, though this was called 
off b/c McBride was a few feet offsides.

Alrighty....  here's what needs to happen for the US to advance to the next 
round:  In pool, or group play, advancement is based on a points system, 
which awards 3pts. for a win, 1pt. for a draw, and 0pts. for a loss.  This 
puts Italy in the lead with 4pts. (1win, 1draw), the Czech Republic and 
Ghana in second with 3pts. (both have 1win and 1loss) and the US in last 
with 1pt. (1draw, 1loss). Regardless the US MUST beat Ghana on Thursday to 
get the vital 3pts. needed to advance to the knockout rounds.  We also need 
Italy to beat the C. Republic.  In this scenario, that would put the final 
group standings at 1) Italy (7pts.), 2) United States (4pts.), 3) Ghana 
(3pts.), 4) Czech Republic (3pts.).  If the C. Republic was to beat Italy, 
we'd be tied with Italy in pts., and it would come down to goal 
differential, or ## of goals scored by each team.  Right now, they've scored 
3, and we've scored 1, so we'd need to score at least 2 goals, and have the 
Czechs' shut them out, to even up with Italy in goals differential.