An exciting day today, for better and for worse, and worth a standalone post.

Australia 3, Japan 1
Australia has had a drought of over 30 years since its last World Cup appearance, and had yet to score a goal in World Cup play. For the vast majority of today's match, it looked like that string would continue. But, feeling a connection to the team, I hung in and rooted for them.

The match, overall, was pretty ugly. A lot of the first half was marred by poor officiating, including a ludicrous missed call that resulted in a goal for Japan that shouldn't have counted. Australia, who'd been pushing fairly hard up to that point, seemed pretty deflated for some time afterward.

Another ugly sight was the display of overacting put on by the Japanese team. Falling to the turf and writhing in agony at the slightest bump, Japan's players took dive after dive, prompting a few unearned fouls to be called on the Aussies. One could cynically call this a savvy response to Australia's rough, physical style of play, but it's pretty pathetic to watch and it brought back memories of previous Cups where taking dives was more of a problem. Japan demonstrated some good ability and exciting strikes; to resort to (and get away with) their acting was pretty cheap.

The result was, for most of the match, a demoralized Aussie team that seemed to slow down a bit and lose their ability to make things happen near the goal. Japan seemed in control, and with the clock winding down to the last few minutes of the match, there didn't seem to be much reason for hope.

Then lighting struck. Three times.

From seemingly out of nowhere, Tim Cahill drove in a goal, then another one five minutes later. What seemed like a sure loss, then a damned lucky escape with a draw, suddenly became a victory. Then John Aliosi knocked in the Socceroos' third goal in 8 minutes, and the ending officially became astounding. Good on ya, mates!

Next up for the Australians is Brazil, who will probably defeat them, but if they can beat or tie Croatia, they have a very real chance of advancing out of the first stage. I've got my fingers crossed.

Czech Republic 3, U.S.A. 0
Oh, dear. Oh, my. Ouch.

Not much more can be said about what was a thoroughly disastrous match for the U.S. team. I was pretty excited about their chances going in, and was looking forward to their very athletic team playing a tough match against the somewhat injury-hobbled Czechs.

But five minutes into the match, it was over. Before the match, much had been made of the matchup between towering Czech striker Jan Koller and almost-as-big U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu. But that debate ended with a thud as Koller slipped right by Onyewu and Eddie Pope to head in a goal before the U.S. had even gotten started.

The U.S. never seemed to recover after that. Tomas Rosicky added two more goals for the Czechs, one coming off another misstep by Onyewu, who cleared a Czech goal shot right back into play, setting up Rosicky's blast.

The score doesn't really convey how thoroughly the U.S. team was clobbered. They were beaten in every phase of the game, for the whole game. The powerful Czech team was like a great curtain sweeping back and forth across the field, their defense dragging the Americans away from the goal, their offense leaving the Americans chasing after them. They choked off the midfield, suffocated the U.S. attack, and broke up the sluggish U.S. defense.

The one bright spot I could see was the quick, dynamic play of U.S. substitute Eddie Johnson, who created some nice scoring chances and added needed energy late in the match. But for the most part, the U.S. team was humbled. Stars Landon Donovan and Brian McBride were shut down, and keeper Kasey Keller and midfielder DaMarcus Beasley were both uninspired or worse.

So, with all that, what hope is there for the U.S. team? Lucky for them, they lost to the best team in their group, so this is not such an unexpected result. Unluckily, they're facing powerful Italy next. They still have a chance to advance if they can at least tie Italy, but realistically, their chances in this tournament come down to one simple goal: they must beat Italy. And, most likely, defeat Ghana as well, because losing 3-0 today doesn't set them up well for a tiebreaker based on goals scored. Both of those victories are possible--the U.S. is athletic, healthy, and deep with talent. But they're in disarray right now, and we'll find out on Saturday if they can turn this thing around.

As for the Czechs, theirs was hands-down the best performance I've seen yet in the tournament. If they can stay healthy, they look like serious contenders for the final.

Labels: Sport