The Third Dukes

See, it's not that US fans thought we could win it all this go-round. We just wanted to emphasize that the quarterfinal run wasn't a fluke or quirk of a soft schedule as others keep claiming it was. It seems as though even that's gone now. *sigh* Oh well -- at least I can smile at Brazil tomorrow. *continues grumbling that they could've been in a draw with France or Spain and got this instead*

Seriously, as Kraigy put it, what you do out where you play means little compared to most other big countries and what they have to go through. The fact that Mexico is the only team of note, and not a very special side at that, that you play regularly shows in the fact that the US are a poor side. Europe, South America and Africa all play more competitive football and have better teams than what ever is produced in North or Central America. There are a big list of teams that are better than the US that missed out this year.

God dammit. I watch this team improve and improve and improve from month to month, year to year. I watch the players keep getting better, the system get better. I know we have talent -- I see it every week, week in, week out. I see the team perform with class, perform with flair, and beat top nations in Mexico. I've seen them play equally with Brazil. I know that we're good. I keep seeing it. And now they do this, and that's all everyone cares about. We beat Mexico four straight times, we win CONCACAF, we can do anything, and all you see is 0-3. That's our team right now. My heart is just dead. I feel betrayed.

I just hope we can beat Italy. But given the way things are going nowadays, it'll take a serious revamping of the lineup.

This is depressing. Are the Czechs that good or are we that garbage? I mean, this isn't even CLOSE to a decent effort. It's like we've given up.

We're just getting outplayed today. We need to wake up. Come on, guys, WAKE THE HELL UP!

DAMMIT! SO CLOSE!

Man, the ref has an itchy yellow finger today. Could be a side plot.

Fuck. I knew it. Stupid Onyewu gets a quick yellow and we're fucked.

Okay, fine, so the Czechs are popular... phooey. Can we all agree to root against the Italians? EDIT: HGWannabe, actually the Mexicans do something similar during their national anthem.

USA Lineup: Keller Lewis - Onyewu - Pope - Cherundolo Beasley - Convey - Reyna© - Mastroeni - Donovan McBride It appears that we're doing everything possible to win the midfield. I hope Onyewu can boss Koller a bit, and depending on Rosicky and Nedved's relative health, we have a chance. FIFA is reporting that Baros is on the bench, which will be a help. McBride won't be alone up front -- Beasley and Donovan will run with him. Convey's start means John O'Brien isn't match-fit, which is unfortunate. All in all, this is going to be close.

WHERE WAS THIS ALL GAME? ALOISI NOW! Man, the US/Czech game suddenly has a LOT to live up to.

And wow, Japan denied a penalty. At least the ref is an equal opportunity screwup. EDIT: And holy f*cking sh*t, are you f*cking kidding me? I had just given up on this game and THIS happens?

Kennedy? I mean, if you're bringing on a forward, why not Thompson, who can score at will?

Anyone else see the replay of Hiddink looking at the replay box with his hands behind his back? It looked like FIFA was ready to arrest him for dissent. 2 hours 20 minutes or so to go... U-S-A... U-S-A...

That looked a lot like the foul by England against Portugal that you all said shouldn't have been a foul. It was a foul then, it should have been one now. Stupid ref.

South Korea managed to get two Portuguese players sent off in their final group match. Then Totti got sent off for a dive that was a legitimate foul. Then Spain had two goals disallowed. Absolutely the worst run of one-sided officiating EVER. Someone get on MSN, please; I'm bored!

Tournament MVP? I'm going to go with Ruud van Nistelrooy. Better question -- who wins the Golden Boot? I'm thinking Luca Toni has the best chance, although I would love to see an African get it (Drogba?). PS -- 31 hours to go!

The US is ranked fourth (now fifth) because FIFA takes wins and losses into account a little TOO much, ignoring strength of schedule. It's kinda like how the AP poll always puts Gonzaga in the Top 5 when they play teams like Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount and keep winning. There's another version of the rankings that uses the chess formula which puts the USA at #18 behind Uruguay, Romania, and Iran. The truth is probably somewhere in between, but I'm not feeling up to figuring it out. All will make more sense in Group E, where really you have three teams for two spots no matter what the Eurocentric pundits say. The whole problem with rating USA or Mexico is that they're so dominant in their own region, plus very few teams play will play them. The US has a hard time getting friendlies outside of the CONCACAF region (with England being a notable exception) unless it's the run-up to the Cup. So the US is stuck beating up weaker competition most of the time, or facing Mexico for the billionth occasion. This means Mexico (#4 FIFA, #15 ELO) and the US (#5 FIFA, #18 ELO) will have a wild disparity from one ranking system to another. Such is life. As it is, if you take the FIFA and the ELO rankings and "combine" them -- that is, reduce both to a percentage distance between the highest and lowest totals, then multiply -- you get this: Rk TEAM FIFA ELO TOTAL 01 Brazil 100% 100% 1.000 02 Netherlands 93% 97% 0.902 03 Czech Republic 93% 95% 0.890 04 France 91% 96% 0.867 05 Spain 91% 94% 0.863 06 England 90% 95% 0.855 07 Argentina 90% 93% 0.837 08 Portugal 91% 92% 0.835 09 Italy 88% 94% 0.828 10 Denmark 89% 91% 0.807 11 Mexico 92% 87% 0.801 12 United States 91% 87% 0.796 13 Germany 84% 91% 0.762 14 Sweden 86% 89% 0.761 15 Turkey 88% 86% 0.754 16 Nigeria 89% 85% 0.752 17 Cameroon 87% 85% 0.740 18 Uruguay 83% 88% 0.7292 19 Croatia 83% 88% 0.7287 20 Romania 83% 87% 0.72331 21 Iran 83% 87% 0.72327 22 Japan 85% 84% 0.718 23 Greece 84% 84% 0.709 24 Egypt 86% 83% 0.708 25 Ireland 81% 86% 0.697 Poland 82% 85% 0.694 Cote d'Ivoire 81% 83% 0.673 Tunisia 84% 79% 0.666 Korea Republic 82% 81% 0.662 Paraguay 79% 83% 0.6576 Costa Rica 83% 80% 0.6571 Switzerland 78% 84% 0.656 Australia 74% 85% 0.631 Serbia/Montenegro 74% 84% 0.622 Ukraine 74% 83% 0.608 Ecuador 76% 78% 0.595 Saudi Arabia 79% 72% 0.563 Ghana 73% 72% 0.524 Trinidad and Tobago 73% 70% 0.509 Angola 70% 71% 0.500 Togo 69% 65% 0.449 Which I think is a tad bit more representative of the nations' strengths, as (thanks to ELO) it takes both schedule strength and wins/losses into account, while (thanks to FIFA) making sure the last few years have precedence. So the bottom line is that any set of world rankings is only going to generate controversy and the solution is to hold the World Cup every summer. Who's up for it?