[papabear]

Originally Posted by Keith

Agreed on all counts. The group set-up was a joke. The other group is Spain and yuck, designed to give the host the best possible opportunity to advance.

With Italy and Brazil in with the U.S. and Egypt, hopes were dim, but they had promise at halftime.

I thought our best chance to advance was to upset Italy and then beat Egypt. I'm not sure if the Brazil v Egypt match proves the Brazilians are vulnerable or that the Egyptians are much better than I thought. Probably a little of both. Even with a man down we had a couple chances that we really wasted to score more against Italy. We also had our usual instance of sloppy play wasting what I thought was a pretty good day of defense.

I feel bad for Rico. He is not a dirty player. It was a bit of a reckless challenge, warranted a yellow but not a red. Sadly, there have been some trigger-happy refs in recent World Cups, so something like this could happen in 2010. It's a good learning experience for him and the team.

One of my complaints is that he was tripped up himself right before the foul. It was just incidental contact, but it had him slightly off balance as he went in for the challenge. He caught the Italian high and that's probably what cost him the red. A yellow wouldn't have drawn much of a complaint from me, but even the Italians admitted a red was unwarranted.

The U.S. has some decent midfield depth though, so Rico might have a hard time getting selected when it counts next summer.

Rico is like Shane Battier to me. so much of what he does goes unnoticed. He just has a way of breaking up the flow of the opposition before they can ever get into an attacking position. I thought he was doing a good job until the red, and hope Bradley recognizes his value and tireless effort. He's just perfect in the defensive mid-field role IMO.

On an unrelated note, I kinda wish Bob would give Adu more minutes. I can see it being hard since he wants Dempsey out there and Donovan is better suited in the middle, but Adu has some ability, and I think he may be a better dead ball kicker than anyone in the current starting XI.

I like Dempsey and with his experience in England I understand why Bradley keeps throwing him out there. He just hasn't been playing well. Everyone wants to make Donovan the centerpiece and keeps telling me he's better suited to the middle, but for me his best games of late have come when he played out wide. I would love to see more Adu.