Okay, after the first and second round of the World Cup, 8 teams have qualified automatically, 7 teams have no mathematical chance at qualifying and 17 teams are in contention. The next few days will be brutal on fans world wide.
Saturday's 1-1 US v. Italy game was both excellent (play by both side) and awful (how did the referee ever make it into the CUP?). The first red card against DeRossi was proper, but the red against Mastroeni was awful. It wasn't a cleats up tackle at all! I seriously doubt it was a yellow card offense, let alone a red card offense.
Pope's foul was a yellow card offense, but his first yellow card was an awful call. That said, what the hell was Eddie thinking? He has a yellow card on him, the referee has already tossed two players. Why risk that tackle? Given has spotty play, I am not sure the US will miss him.
But props to the boys in red, white and blue. Has they played like that against the Czechs, they could have won that game. They now face a must-win against Ghana (though we always knew that this games was going to be a must-win). And please, run up the score! If Italy wins and the US wins, we are in. If Italy-Czech Rep. tie, we are out. If the Czechs win and the US wins, then our magic number is 6, but if the US wins by 3, then our magic number is 5. The magic number is any combinations of goals scored by the US or against Italy.
Why? In tie breakers, after total points, you go to goal differential, The goal difference between the US and Italy is 5, so 6 total goals by the US or against Italy and we win by virtue of the fact that we will have 1 better goal difference then the Italians. At five, the goal difference would be even, so the next tie breaker is total goals scored. The US has 1 and Italy has 3, so the US must score 3 to beat the Italians on total goals. If they score only 2, the rest of the determination is based on head-to-head competition. Since US v. Italy was a 1-1 tie, they would draw lots.
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