After waking up at 4 am this morning to watch the U-23 US Olympic Soccer Team get elminated, by themselves, not by Nigeria, I cannot help but ask a few questions as I reflect on the tournament.
1. If you were the referee, would you have given Orozco a yellow? Did the Nigerian player ham up the elbow to the point that he actually caused the red by acting? Now I know that throwing the elbow was plain stupid, don't get me wrong. That is not what I am saying here. I am just not sure if the punishment fit.
2. After watching all 3 games, I think we might have been the best team in our group. So what went wrong? My primary answer to this question is "youth." We played well, had some bad decisions made by young players (some yellow cards, a foul in stoppage time, a jumping wall, an elbow) and were thus eliminated. But in the end, I think we may have been the best team of our group.
3. Will you ever jump in a wall when the shooter is within 20 yards of your goal again? No.
4. Why did Charlie Davies get so little time? He was explosive!
5. After watching our boys play 86 minutes against Nigeria a man down, were you impressed with their effort or did you think it was lackluster? I have to say that I was impressed by their heart, effort and continual opportunistic style of play. Competing at that level with a man down cannot be taken lightly. I think it would be short sighted to not take away some positives from that game.
6. Was it worth the tired days and 4 am alarms to watch these guys play? Absolutely.
In the end, it was a depressing exit from the tournament and it is safe to say that we pretty much got eliminated due to our own mistakes. The US team clearly had the talent to play with the best but they seemed to lack the maturity or focus to pull out victories when they needed. I think the future looks bright and just hope we learn from our mistakes.
14 comments:
I think the red was pretty harsh, especially considering it was only the 3rd minute. Give him a yellow, have a talk with him, but don't kill the game.
I thought it was a good enough tournament. I think one problem was Nowak's substitutions and player selections. In hindsight McBride wasn't a very good selection and both Jozy and Charlie Davies should've seen more playing time. And why did Nowak pull Jozy at half instead of McBride or Rogers?
I hear Jozy had a hurt ankle. And I totally agree on the McBride topic. He just didn't fit into the style of play these guys had. He is a great player, just not on that particular roster I guess.
On the red card (from a referee)
If the referee didn’t give a red card there, it would have been his last game for the tournament because he didn't follow the laws of the game. Striking is striking. There is no way around it.
I figured one of the ref's would weigh in on that. I understand that perspective...but just wish there was some room for a subjective opinion by the official. Is there ever any room for subjective opinions by the ref? And if so, how do you distinguish between a rule that allows for interpretation and one that does not?
How about the slide tackle from behind by the goalie? Two-footed? Doesn't the law say that's a red? He got off with only a yellow.
Pele,
Striking is pretty simple. There is no way around it. The rule is there for a reason, 3rd minute, 40th, 60th, 90th, 118th, doesnt matter when, they dont want striking at all. Hockey on the other hand, you can get into a fight 3 times before you are thrown out.
With the goal keeper, he didnt come from behind or infront of him. His cleats were on the ground. To be honest, I thought the tackle was just mistimed and the ref didnt need to give a caution.
Question, I havent really been paying attention to the soccer games but why was the US logo covered with tape??
It's an IOC rule that you cannot use your FIFA logo/symbol/crest. But while we couldn't use our traditional logo, we could have put a US flag or some other symbol there. So it was either use tape or pay a fine. Personally I think they should suck it up and pay the fine. Several other countries did.
Fascinating. I was wondering what was up with the logo. And I still don;t understand how some rules are allowed subjective interpretation and some are not. It seems like a slippery slope. I would say that all should allow for some interpretation and that the ref should show consistency in the interpretation.
But Tyler, if you ref my game and anyone strikes me or one of my players, it is definitely an automatic red.
But if you or any of your players strike someone, then think twice about it and give them a verbal warning right?
W
Check out this article from Jamie Trecker I think it says it all...
http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/JamieTrecker/2008/08/13/This_one_hurts_USA_crash_out_in_Beijing
J,
To insert a link type this <a href="http://www.google.com">Text to Display</a>
and you get this Jamie Trecker Article
Tyler: You got it. Glad we are on the same page. ;-)
Pele: From soccer god to HTML program tutorials. Awesome.
I read this Trecker article and have yet to be able to finish it - there is something about the tone that really rubs me the wrong way. If Trecker is so smart and knows how to advance the sport in the US, he should go run US Soccer.
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