World Cup Matches of the Day; [R]; 6/12/06

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My predictions
Australia 1 : 0 Japan
USA 0 : 2 Czech Rep.
Italy 3 : 0 Ghana

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Buffon to meet investigators

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How should the U.S. define success at the World Cup?

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Damarcus Beasley

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Ching Has 13 Stitches After Training Collision

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Kasey Keller's not so subtle dig at Brad Friedel
I'm sitting inn Hamburg's World Cup Stadium watching Ivory Coast give Argentina all it can handle and it dawned on me that I haven't posted Kasey Keller's juicy remark at today's press conference. When asked about his feelings about patriotism and playing for the national team, Keller started to talk about how he has played in Europe his whole career yet he still loves coming home to America. Then this line:

"I'm an American. I played in England for 12 years. I don't have some dodgy English accent," said Keller. "I'm still speaking with an American accent."

OUCH

Any U.S. fan worth his salt knows who that comment was directed toward, even if Keller would probably deny it. Brad Friedel must be sitting at home thinking, "How about you win a World Cup game before you take a shot at me." That said, Friedel's accent is a bit dodgy.

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From the Fiver site:

USA! USA! USA!

As we await this afternoon's Group E opener between the Czech Republic and God Bless America, let's put our snooty European prejudices to one side and admit that the Americans have done tremendously well to reach their current world ranking - fifth. After all, soccer is by no means the most popular sport stateside: it trails miles behind gridiron, baseball, shooting sprees, insider trading, surfing for bongo, gorging on cheeseburger-flavoured gherkin ice-creams with 12 gallons of Pepsi and making 58,768 versions of the same action movie. So yes, Bruce Arena's boys really have succeeded against all the odds, much like Hulk Hogan, Rocky, The Karate Kid, Michael Knight, Colt Sivers, Nomi Malone, Dolores Van Cartier, The Littlest Hobo, [STOP! - Fiver Ed.]

Like, Arena himself is an impressive guy, dude. Not only did he oversee God Bless America's best-ever qualifying campaign (they topped a group featuring popular beaches Panama and Guatemala), but after seven years in charge he has mastered international footballspeak. "We have a mountain to climb," he droned in the run-up to today's clash with the Czechs, proving he no longer had any need for the football glossary American soccer fans should be obliged to learn by heart before conversing about the game.

What's more, Arena reckons he knows how to handle 6ft 8ins Czech striker Jan Koller - stick 6ft 4ins defender Oguchi Onyewu on him. "Gooch" is reported to be a top talent despite being linked with Middlesbrough and claims he's looking forward to attempting to prevent Koller from adding to his 42 goals in 68 matches. "I like playing against big guys," boomed Gooch. "They don't complain as much when they encounter a big defender." And if Gooch is as good as Gareth Southgate seems to think, then Koller may not in fact score. So instead the first goal will come from a Pavel Nedved free-kick, after Gooch, who collected three red cards in Belgium this season, chops down his opponent with the sort of clumsy brutality that some people associate more closely with the US army.

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Czech golden generation gear up for last big test

Jon Brodkin in Westerburg
Monday June 12, 2006
The Guardian

As Petr Cech discusses the Czech Republic's targets, he refers on a couple of occasions to one of the principal motivating factors for this squad. Age dictates that a first taste of the World Cup for several of the team's big stars will also be their last. There is a determination to ensure the country's "great generation", as Cech calls them, gets a memorable send-off.
Pavel Nedved, Karel Poborsky, Jan Koller and Tomas Galasek are the wrong side of 33, meaning this offers their last realistic crack at international glory. They have gone close before, suffering the pain of defeat in a Euro 2004 semi-final and, in Nedved and Poborksy's case, the Euro 96 final as well.

Against the United States today will come the first signs of whether the Czechs can replicate the verve of two years ago or whether time and injuries have withered them. Vladimir Smicer, another 30-something stalwart, had to withdraw from the tournament because of a thigh problem. Koller is not long back from knee ligament damage sustained in September and the sight of Nedved pulling out of Thursday's training to treat his left knee was a reminder of his increasing fragility.
The Czechs will be a force if they find form and fitness but there is little room for error in a group that also pits them against Italy and Ghana, and they may have to begin without Milan Baros, their top scorer at Euro 2004, because the Aston Villa striker has a foot injury. Whatever the personnel, the realisation that an era is drawing to a close will be an inspiration.

"There's a great motivation for them and for the whole team as well," Cech said. "We know this team will probably change a lot after the World Cup and that's why we want to finish well for them, for the team and for the nation because they have been waiting such a long time for this. As one of the youngest players I can say I want to be successful with this group of players because they are the great generation of Czech football."

Chelsea's goalkeeper disputes that in certain areas the team is too old, though Tomas Rosicky is the only first-choice midfielder under 30. "With age you have a lot of experience so maybe it can be an advantage for us," he said. "I think we have a good balance of young and experienced players."

Nedved seemed destined never to play in a World Cup having announced his international retirement shortly after Euro 2004 but he returned in an injury crisis for November's play-off against Norway and has stayed. After two wins over Norway he felt confident enough to say: "We can win the World Cup."

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America tunes in to soccer
Football's profile has soared in the USA. Now all they need is a decent team.
Sean IngleJune 12, 2006 11:55 AM

Americans with bloodshot eyes and dazed expressions were everywhere in Gelsenkirchen yesterday, their faces embossed with signs of a sleepless flight across the Atlantic. Most had traded in their annual leave to come to the World Cup.

I found myself chatting to some lads from Memphis. Preliminaries over, I asked the obvious question: "So, do you fancy your team's chances against the Czech Republic?"

"Sure," piped up one. "After all, we're fifth in the Fifa world rankings."

There was a pause, before the four of them erupted into laughter.

"And the Czechs are second!" cried another, bringing the house down.

That exchange - self-effacing, intelligent, humorous - was typical: every American I met seemed determined to wage war against the cliché of the ignorant US Soccerball fan.

And with good reason. Major League Soccer, now a decade old, has established firm foundations in a country where soccer was once as fashionable as communism. The figures are all going the right way: attendances are up, TV coverage is widespread, and, most tellingly of all, there's the whiff of greenbacks in the air. Three years ago it cost $25m to buy a franchise, now the going rate would be three times higher.

Teams are also moving away from the soulless American Football stadiums, which they never had a hope of filling, into smaller, purpose-built soccer arenas. Last year, FC Dallas established residency in Pizza Hut Park, an all-purpose stadium that the club describes as "the first large-scale soccer facility of its type in the US". Chicago Fire and Red Bull New York have similar plans.

Salaries are on the increase too. Yesterday I spoke to someone who played in the Indoor Soccer League in the 1980s. He earned barely $1,000 a month and quit after a season "to get a proper job". Now the best college players can make a living at the pro game, although some in the US squad still make less than $80,000 a year - probably what an average League 1 player would earn in the UK.

Of course, the NBA playoffs, not the World Cup, dominate the US sporting agenda right now. Even so, football's winds are blowing the right way. On Saturday all three World Cup matches were shown live on ABC, a radical departure: usually all but the biggest games are shunted out to cable sports channel ESPN.

All the Americans need now is a great team. It will come - demographics and the sheer weight of numbers playing football at youth level tell you that - but they're not there yet.

Admittedly they qualified easily for the World Cup, averaging almost two goals a game and finishing above Mexico in the final group, but what awaits them in Group E will be like going from climbing Snowdonia to Everest. Bruce Arena is a wily coach, but recent friendlies against Morocco (a 1-0 defeat), Venezuela and Latvia are no way to acclimatise for the Czech Republic, Italy and Ghana.

As well as indifferent recent form, there are also worries about the squad. The money players, Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley, have had poor seasons. Claudio Reyna, a great player in his prime, is on the wane. And Cory Gibbs, out with a knee injury, is a big loss.

I can't see the US team getting out of Group E. But everyone said the same thing in Korea/Japan before they reached the quarter-finals, where they outplayed Germany but lost 1-0. They may surprise us again.

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Who to cheer for when the football doesn't matter

Today: Czech Republic v USA

Gary Younge
Monday June 12, 2006
The Guardian

Should be a walkover, but the Czechs have a knack of scoring elaborate own goals. Both are in Iraq and elections show that both have an evenly and bitterly divided electorate. True, the Czechs now only provide police training in Basra, whereas the Americans are massacring civilians and covering it up. But both have blood on their hands - only the Czechs have smaller hands. Meanwhile, around 75% of Gypsy children in the Czech Republic are stuck in special schools for slow learners. Not even the US can boast that level of discrimination. Get out those stars and stripes, lefties: This one's for the Roma.

Verdict: Support USA!