The teams with no really good nicknames face off against each other.
The USA is making its eighth appearance in the World Cup. The best finish for the Americans was a semifinal appearance way back in 1930. The USA reached the quarterfinals in 2002.
The Czech Republic is making its first appearance since Slovakia became an independent country. The nation of Czechoslavakia was quite successful in the past, making eight trips to the World Cup and losing in the finals twice, once in 1934 to Italy and again in 1962 to Brazil.
The Americans really need to get a result here to have a chance to advance.
G Kasey KELLER
D Steve CHERUNDOLO
D Oguchi ONYEWU
D Eddie POPE
D Pablo MASTROENI
M Bobby CONVEY
M Claudio REYNA (C)
M DaMarcus BEASLEY
M Eddie LEWIS
F Landon DONOVAN
F Brian McBRIDE
For the Czechs:
G Peter CECH
D Zdenek GRYGERA
D Marek JANKULOVSKI
D Tomas UJFALUSI
D David ROZEHNAL
M Karel PODBORSKY
M Tomas GALASEK (C)
M Tomas ROSICKY
M Pavel NEDVED
M Jaroslav PLASIL
F Jan KOLLER
National Anthem. My office has streaming tv to people's desktops, with news channels only. But there is a "special channel" for educational shows and emergencies. And for some reason I decided to check and, sure enough, some joker has switched it to ESPN2.
Of course, I have to leave my office in 10 minutes.
Koller went down in a heap while challanging Gooch for the ball to Keller's left. It wasn't nearly coordinated enough to be a dive, and there wasn't really any contact. It looks like he blew his hammy.
That's gotta hurt the Czech's chances to win the whole thing, if Koller is out for a while. He's a physically dominant player. He makes the US defenders look like 5'10" cornerbacks trying to guard Terrell Owens.
Actually, by fixing it, you just created another version. If item #400,000 had an error in it, it still does. It's just hidden by item #400,111 or whatever new item you just created.
Memo to ESPN: the American team is an underdog. Why are you talking like they are favorites, surprised at how this game is going? I don't think I expected anything other than exactly what's happened.
The ESPN commentary for this one was an unfunny joke. Starting with the second goal all they wanted to talk about was how the Americans could still qualify for the second round -- if they beat Italy (no) and Ghana (now doubtful). Nothing about two awful defensive lapses. The entire back line was flat-footed on the third Czech goal. No one except Eddie Johnson showed up on offense. Donovan and Beasley were nowhere to be seen. Obviously the Disney family of networks made a huge miscalculation making this tournament so much about the American team. I hope by the second set of games they've managed to produce some halftime pieces about Trinidad & Tobago.
What a disappointing start. The media was building up USA so much that maybe it got to the players. We'll be lucky to win or tie one match in this group. The FIFA standings are so useless. I wonder what all the USA/ESPN analysts are going to say now.
For the U.S.:
G Kasey KELLER
D Steve CHERUNDOLO
D Oguchi ONYEWU
D Eddie POPE
D Pablo MASTROENI
M Bobby CONVEY
M Claudio REYNA (C)
M DaMarcus BEASLEY
M Eddie LEWIS
F Landon DONOVAN
F Brian McBRIDE
For the Czechs:
G Peter CECH
D Zdenek GRYGERA
D Marek JANKULOVSKI
D Tomas UJFALUSI
D David ROZEHNAL
M Karel PODBORSKY
M Tomas GALASEK (C)
M Tomas ROSICKY
M Pavel NEDVED
M Jaroslav PLASIL
F Jan KOLLER
Of course, I have to leave my office in 10 minutes.
The Czechs could win the battle, but lose the war.
But I can't let item #400,000 have an error on it!
Those didn't end well for the Americans.
Just another in a string of disappointments.
That seems to be the team's only appreciable skill.
Mexico 3
T&T 1
Costa Rica 0
USA 0
Unless a lot of Italians want to watch.
After the match:
"We had a lot of guys who were in their first games and were a little bit nervous," captain Claudio Reyna said.
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