First Blush

That sudden concussive explosion you just felt was the suits of U.S. Soccer, the suits of MLS, the suits of Nike and Adidas, and the suits of ABC/Disney/ESPN, collectively oh-shitting themselves at the prospect of 32nd place for the USMNT in Germany.

The Czechs were wonderful, composed, technically adept, and tremendously coached, and Tomas Rosicky's Mr. 10% must be kicking himself for agreeing to an Arsenal contract before the WC. The Czech's looked at Arena's probable 4-4-2 with the again invisible Bobby Convey on one midfield wing and the always has, the still does, and the always will suck DeMarcus Beasley on the other and crafted a defense that played wide and deep and didn't allow many long runs and crosses. Donovan disappeared. Reyna hit a post in the first half (when US down just one - that would have changed the game), but is slow.

Slow. The game was too fast for the Americans, for the defense, for the strikers, but especially for the midfield. Slow. 3-0 does not reflect how much better the Czechs were (and they lost their monster striker to injury in the first). Nedved and Rosicky or Reyna and Beasley? More later, but holy figgety fvck.

What a depressing 18 hours of soccer.