US Soccer Chokes on World's Stage

All day long, I avoided news of the game.  I told people not to give me hints.  I said not to tell me if it was a good game, a bad game, if it was a 0-0 game or a 5-0 blowout either way.  I told people to not even think about the game while near me, for fear of suddenly gaining psychic powers.

Then I went home (actually to my grandma's house), popped in the tape and ... proceeded to watch the US soccer team be dismantled by the far-superior Czech squad.  It was, as the Albuquerque Journal front page said, a "Reality Czech."

All hopes of the United States equaling their 2002 effort and pulling off an upset in the first game were gone by halftime.  By then, I was just hoping for a tie.  Maybe hope was gone before halftime.

Maybe it was gone in the fifth minute when six-foot seven-inch forward Jan Koller headed in a goal unopposed.  Maybe it was gone when Tomas Rosinsky scored a spectacular goal off a botched US clear.  It was definitely gone by the time Rosinksy added an extra nail in the coffin in the 76th minute with his second goal of the day.

Throughout the entire game, the US rarely looked competent on defense and even more rarely looked dangerous on offense.  Beyond Reyna's shot off the post and Eddie Johnson narrowly missing a cross in the second-half, the US barely even got a look at the goal and Czech keeper Petr Cech.

What made things worse was watching the Italy-Ghana game.  A 0-0 tie would have been the best-case scenario for the US. Instead, Italy looked impressive in defeating a creative, athletic Ghana squad.  Italy could have easily had four goals and Ghana one or two. 

Now the US is stuck at the bottom of their group, looking closer to the squad that finished dead-last in 1998 than the group that lost 1-0 in the quarterfinals four years ago.  Next up, Italy on Saturday.  Here's praying for a miracle.