June 21, 2006
WHICH IS WHY YOU COULDN'T EVEN GET ALEX dE LARGE TO WATCH IT:
U.S. offense is missing in action (Detroit News wire services, 6/21/06)
Shots by the U.S. team at the World Cup have been scarcer than tickets.[...]Posted by Orrin Judd at June 21, 2006 1:49 PMAmerica's lack of offense has been startling. According to FIFA's statistics, the only shot on goal was Claudio Reyna's drive off a post in the 28th minute against the Czech Republic. That's by far the lowest total after two games for any of the tournament's 32 teams. Angola is next-to-last with four. [...]
The way the Americans played against the Czechs was a step back, but their tie against the Italians was one of their best games -- even though they had no shots.
Before or after his "tune-up" as we say here in Chicago?
Posted by: Rick T. at June 21, 2006 2:29 PMDuring--remember the gizmo that holds his eyes open so he was to watch the screen....
Posted by: oj at June 21, 2006 2:39 PMAh, yes!
Posted by: Rick T. at June 21, 2006 3:58 PMRemember, team, you can score no goals and still not lose.
A rock-solid defense provokes the other side into making mistakes. They get almost desperate and commit screw-ups that give you the match. The better the other side is, the more frustrated they become.
This usually worked for my teams and it would have worked for USA against Italy, if the match hadn't been fixed.
Posted by: Lou Gots at June 21, 2006 5:25 PMWhy don't they just skip all the preliminary running around in cricles and get right to the penalty shoot-outs? It's how all the important games are decided anyway.