United States Ties Italy in Tough Match

Mastroeni dejectedly walked off the field after a vicious tackle, making it ten men a side between Italy and the United States.  Earlier, Italian starter Daniele De Rossi was given a red card for a vicious elbow that caused blood to spurt from below Brian McBride's eye.

The game was 1-1, the Americans benefiting from an own goal by Italy in the 28th minute.  All in all, it was not a pretty game. 

The game grew uglier when Eddie Pope was given a second yellow, and the US was forved to play with nine men for the rest of the way.  Forty-three minutes, nine men.  The US was forced to hang on.

The New York Times called it True Grit.  American fans breathed a sigh of relief and could have called it Survival.

The US opened up looking impressive against  Italy.  For the first 22 minutes, they dominated play.  They held the ball, the had shots, they looked like the better team.  That all changed after a free kick, where Alberto Gilardino broke free from his defender and drove a diving header past a diving Kasey Keller.

The US got one back when Bobby Convey hit a free kick into the box, and Cristian Zaccardo botched a clear, knocked the ball instead into his own net.  A minute later, Brian McBride was walking off the field, bloody after the vicioud elbow by De Rossi.

For 43 minutes in the second half, nine men on the United States side ran and ran and ran.  At one point, they even seemed to take the lead when second-half sub DaMarcus Beasely fired s shot of an Italian player and into the back of the net.  But McBride was standing offsides, and let hte ball go through his legs.

From that point on, the United States was under constant siege.  Stalingrad came to mind.  The Italians kept the ball, moving side to side until they saw an opening.  When sub Alessandro del Piero hit a volley towards net, millions of American soccer fans held their breath.  Keller came up with an amazing one-handed save (pictured above, courtesy of Kevork Djansezian of the Associated Press).  Soccer fans could breath again.

Before the day began, it seemed like a 1-1 result would be bad for the United States.  But coupled with Ghana's impressive 2-0 upset victory over the Czech Republic (it easily could have been 3-0, as Ghana missed a penalty kick), the United States is still very much alive.

With a victory over Ghana Thursday morning, coupled with either an Italy victory or a complicated scenario involving goal-differential with a Czech Republic victory, the United States would be free to face ... Brazil.

But hey, if the US can preserve a tie with only nine men, why not victories over Ghana and Brazil?  Crazier things have happened.