Pop quiz, hotshot: What do we know after the first set of matches in Group E?

a) That the US looked outclassed by Czech
b) That both Italy and Ghana looked better than the US
c) That it strains belief that the US could win a goal differential tie-breaker at 1-1-1
d) That the US needs victories over both Italy and Ghana to get through to the knockout round
e) All of the above
f) a, b and c only

The correct answer is f.

At this stage, the most realistic chance that the US has is not to win against Italy and Ghana - I would argue that it would be foolish for the US to come out attacking too hard against the Italians, exposing their back-line to the kind of 2-on-2s that Czech brutalized them with. Nor is it to win on goal differential - at minus 3 after 1 game that ain’t gonna happen.

At this point, what the US needs to get through is:

1. Earn a draw against Italy
2. Beat Ghana
3. Have Ghana beat Czech
4. Have Italy beat Czech

Final Group E standings in this scenario:

1. Italy 2-0-1 7 pts
2. US 1-1-1 4 pts
3. Czech 1-2-0 3 pts
4. Ghana 1-2-0 3 pts

Note that this is not a crazy scenario. Any questions?

So all it took it was one lousy game (and OH MAN was it a lousy game) and we’ve got sniping and chaos in the USA locker room?

Following the loss, Bruce Arena decided to “motivate” the USA squad by calling out Landycakes (”Landon showed no aggressiveness”), DaMarcus Beasley (”We got nothing from Beasley on the night”) and Kasey Keller (for “putting the ball upfield where we have nobody” on the first goal). Yikes! Landycakes agreed with Arena, but Beasley wasn’t quite as polite: “I was always defending the whole time. That’s how the game went. Next time I will leave the guy and play as a striker instead of a midfielder and then we’ll see what happens.”

Umm, is that a threat? I suspect we won’t see Mr. Beasley in the Starting XI on Saturday.

I have no idea what Bruce Arena is thinking throwing folks under the bus in public like this. Also, as noted by the folks on BigSoccer, I would have preferred an Andy Reid-esque mea culpa from the coach at some point (”This loss is all on me, I didn’t get the guys prepared, I didn’t do a good enough job getting the team ready…”). What, the Czechs scored first and that crashed your tactics so it isn’t your fault? You saw that your team struggled to break down a defending team against freakin Morocco, you didn’t have a plan for what might happen if you went down a goal against the Czechs?

Just imagine if we had real media covering this thing instead of the U.S. Soccer lapdogs.

Either way, this doesn’t feel like the sort of team spirit we needed to get results at this tournament.

Links:
Arena’s men left with scars and strife [Soccernet]
A Different World For The U.S. [Washington Post]