World chumps

Any hopes the US had of making a run in this World Cup were dashed with a shockingly wretched 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic in the first round.

What was shocking about it was not the loss (the Czechs are a very good team, albeit a little old), but that the US team did not compete. Getting beat is one thing, but just standing around and watching it happen was embarrassing. The US had a pretty good lead in time of possession, but nearly all of it was harmless. They had trouble stringing three or four passes together because there were so many passes that were poorly played or handled, which slowed down any momentum they might be trying to build upfield. As a result, the US ended up with about two or three decent runs at the goal in the entire game. Most of the game, Czech keeper Peter Cech was sitting in a lawn chair doing Sudoku puzzles. Late in the game, they showed a stat on TV showing that the US had not managed a corner kick or even an offside. That shows just how little aggressiveness they had on offense.

The part that wasn't shocking about the defeat was that the defense was terrible. The US has world-class players at every position except defense. The Czechs didn't have the ball a lot in this game, relatively speaking, but they had many more good scoring opportunities in part because the back line of the US either has no idea what they're doing or they don't have the ability to do it. Fifteen years ago, the US didn't have a world class player at all, so things are getting better, but until they get the better on defense, strong finishes in the World Cup will be based more on luck than anything else. As for this time around, they have to beat Italy on Saturday to have any chance of advancing to the knockout round.

The other team I picked for the third place game along with the US didn't look too hot in its opening game either. Poland was drilled by Ecuador 2-0 and is probably going to have to beat Germany now just to get out of its group.