I thought Atidore was great and caused loads of problems... wish we could get him in an EFC shirt together with Landon.

Great finish from Donovan and the second game of the day fucked by a referee.

Pretty livid by the non-goal. Agree on Howard; I was pointing it out on the first goal that it was saveable. Another long-range shot that eases past Howard.

You the know refereeing was fucking awful when you start feeling sympathy for the Germans.

In all seriousness, Mirislav Klose has always been impressive and was dismissed for bugger all and Phillip Lam, a top class defender, was scared for his life to make a challenge in the second half.

Pity there has to be representation of refs from all over the world rather than using the best officials available.

2 strange refereeing displays today. The first one was just crass incompetence, the 2nd one bizarre. How the Mali ref gave a booking against Findley for an imaginary handball when he was just a few yards away I don't know, The disallowed goal was a disgrace to football, and there were 2 legitimate penalty claims for USA in the same incident.

Not sure if the nationality of the referees is necessarily an issue, as the ref in the first game was Spanish. He looked like he'd never reffed a game before.

The first goal was pretty sweet I thought. Waited for our defender to move between him and Tim and let it rip. Heard our "experts" declare, "You can't give a good striker that much space". Geniuses.

The second goal we gave them. I love our guys, warts and all, but Gooch either had to go back or move up. He stayed in no-man's land and that fellow just waltzed in on Tim. Gooch's back in shape, but his lack of match play was showing on that one.

Was pretty funny to see that Keeper back-up and sort of protect himself on LD's goal. You don't see that often.

Yeah, the ref sucked. Our general play in the 1st half matched him. Which is where we lost the other 2 points.

Ah well. I'm busy rooting for Algeria right this minute. I'm happy about it, but didn't this genius Capello watch ManU games last season? I mean, Rooney left, right and up the middle, right. How complicated is strategy when you have a Rooney?

Fifa need to take a long hard look at some of the awful refereeing. It is embarrassing for such a prestigious spectacle to have such poor decisions decide games.

The whole tournament could become somewhat of a joke which would be a shame.

Agree with Michael on the goal though. Probably my favourite strike of the World Cup so far. Now if we could only have Donovan and a left winger playing for us for the whole season....

Trevor (1) - Yes, our Jozy, a true diamond in the rough. He'll be 24 in 2014 and will hopefully have spent until then polishing his finishing.

Donovan's delivery is as good as Beckham's... you can call me a Donovan groupie who gives a fuck, but FFS sign him up now.

England - Algeria 0-0? Didn't Capello watch any ManU games last year? Does he think there's 2 Wayne Rooneys? How can you have a player among the elite of the elite and score 1 goal in 185 minutes and no goals over the last 180 of them?

Some Italian genius. Mind you, as a US fan, I'm happy about it. At least we beat Algeria in Game 3, we move on. But still.

I have to agree with Dave 9 about some of Donovan's crosses which were also not picked up after the Engerland game too which were sweet as could be, the guy would be an asset not a hinderance to our squad.

As far as Engerland and France are concerned they should be ashamed of themselves having brought nothing whatsoever to this World Cup, kind of makes you feel sorry for the teams that didn't qualify in their groups.

On the England vs Algeria game. I want the guy in one of the previous threads who ridiculed Gavin for suggesting Algeria would give England a game:

1. To apologize to Gavin on here;
2. To send in a YouTube link of him eating his Union Jack hat.

And the cheek of Rooney sarcastically mouthing that "It's great when your own fans boo you"!! What the fuck does he expect? That was an appalling display. Compare to the Americans' fight back.

Donovan's crossing in both games has been as good as anyone's in the tournament so far and his goal today was one of the best. His cross set up the second USA goal and he would have had an assist for the third. I was also impressed by his general passing and defending against England. I KNOW he's not one of us but I keep thinking of him as a Blue - surely he's the man for our right wing? But will others now be taking notice?

Agree with that Mike. When you compare his crossing with that of England's tonight it was like chalk and cheese. Others will take notice but his excellent spell with us already will have given us a head start, and it seems that he has developed an affection for the club as well. Let's make it happen.

Lay off Tim Howard, will you Mike. The ball was fast and Tim had his vision blocked before he could react. So, the first goal was unsavable by any standard.

The real sad thing about the disallowed goal is we're through if it stands. Now we have to beat, not draw, against a stubborn Algeria. Horrid call.

Nice to see so many Blues lauding the play of Landon. He's really been fantastic. His crosses are world class.

Prediction: US and England win final group game and both go through. England is stuttering. Why I'll never know. They have so much talent it's just silly. They'll pull it out, as will the US in the end.

Let's hope they meet up again this tournament....

FTR, my family filled out our World Cup brackets prior to the tourney. My youngest chose Spain, everyone else chose Brazil, except me. I chose England believe it or not. I don't root for them at all, but I just can't figure out for the life of me why they aren't killing the likes of Algeria? It seriously defies any logic, explanation, et al. They gotta come good soon.

Nothing against Altidore but, apart from making defenders run around a bit, not sure he's close to a natural finisher. He seems to be very young still so maybe I'm being harsh. He had a moment where he was put through and completely messed it up allowing the defender to make a tackle.

Landon was superb again... I really wish he was in a blue shirt next year. What a player... as one journalist put it: the best crosser in he tournament.

Refereeing... don't even go there. It's been a shambles and is ruining the games more than the ball or the vuvus... diabolical!

I was at the Germany game and even the Serbians around me were scratching their heads at Klose's sending off...

Hopefully he will be starting next season in a lovely pink kit at Ewood park. As it has been mentioned a number of times on here, we can't afford him anyway. If Landon signs, I'll buy the pink kit, with his name a squad number. You can hold me to that.

David (17) - Not being harsh. Jozy's still very raw. Even I have to remind myself he's 20 years old when he can basically plant himself anywhere around the box, not be moved out, but finish poorly.

On the other hand, you need that youthful addition to your National Side. You MUST have it.

I mean, picture Jozy scoring. Yes, it's for the Team. But also it's "I'm 20 years old and just scored in the World Cup with a billion people watching"!!!! Experience, critical as it might be, doesn't bring that youthful enthusiasm. Youth does.

Look at that Mexican kid scoring the 2nd goal against the Frogs. Yes, it put France away for Mexico. But also that look in his eyes as he turned away after putting in the net. "I scored a goal in the World Cup"!!!!

Teams have to have that youth in the WC. I don't want to bring England's performance in here, but where are their kids? They have some. Talented ones. You can't just stick the "Same old, same olds" out there year after year.

It's the WC and no amount of experienced players can replace one or 2 "Holy shit and Yahooooooo, I'm playing in the World Cup" youngsters.

So, yeah, Jozy has a ways to go. I think he'll get there. God knows he has the physique. 2014 WC, he still can't finish? I'll be disappointed. But he's 20 and raw yet. We'll put up with it. You have to have some youth in the squad and they have to play.

Correction - The Mexican kid scored the 1st goal against France. The rest about him the same.

Oh dear the groupies are out in force.

Michael.

Absolutely brilliant goals are usually ones that beat decent keepers all ends up, not goals that any park goalie would have saved, the keeper simply had a Weston, he stands there, he saves it, he does anything at all but duck, he saves it

The Yanks have been bitterly disappointing and, but for two of the worst pieces of goalkeeping in World Cup history, they would already be out.

"Groupies"!?!? WTF is the matter with you?

You waste a thread and half in one of your all-too-predictable battles, talking up Pienaar and talking down Donovan, so now for consistency's sake, you feel the need to contaminate this thread with your arrant nonsense?

Landon's goal was quite simply the best so far at the World Cup: build-up, positioning, a touch of luck, skill, urgency, drama, accuracy, power — you name it. It had everything. Yes, even sticking some quotient of fear into the keeper, who could of course have saved it in some other reality... but guess what — HE DIDN'T. And that, in case you haven't twigged yet, is how goals are scored. (And you the self-proclaimed the football expert?!?)

And in case you missed it, Landon was heavily involved in the other two goals they scored. Neither of which the goalie saved. No doubt you're relieved one of them was quite wrongly ruled out — otherwise, to play your stupid "what if" game for a moment, the USA would arguably already be in the last 16! Which version of alternate reality do you want to go with? As if I even want to know...

Pathetic target to pick this time, Dave.

Dave (21). After that post I don't think I'll ever again be able to take anything you say seriously.

Brendan,

You will be joining a very big group.

Michael.

Target? There was no target.

When I see a thread where I agree with the overwhelming majority of posters I simply don't post, I don't see the point, people with a better command of the language have normally said what I think.
When I see a thread where I disagree with the majority, I like to take it on, present the other side, unfortunately that sometimes gets me into trouble, but contaminate?

James Flynn says its rare for a goalie "to back up and protect himself" he couldn't be more right, in 40 odd years of playing, managing and watching the game I have never seen a goalie duck before.
Landon's goal did have accuracy and power and if the goalkeeper tried to save it it would have to be considered "great " ... but he didn't, he committed the cardinal sin for a keeper, he displayed a lack of courage, not Donovans fault, but because of the keepers unbelievable behaviour — it's a beach ball FFS — the goal will never be rated by the average football fan.

I expect a lot from this USA team, but if that goalie had merely stood still they would have been out now ... I stand by that statement, "What if" can't only apply to referees' decisions. If the keeper did his job, anything that happened after that would have been academic.

Landon is a nice guy and a good player, but I confess I`m bewildered by the level of his popularity, I thought the "groupie" comment was funny, I was obviously wrong and I apologise for offence caused.

BTW Michael.

I lose a considerable amount of money if USA don't make it through. With England, as with all my dealings with the bookies, I would trade luck for judgment all day long.

I promise you, relieved is not the word I would use to describe myself when that "goal" was disallowed.

Dave (25) - Thought real hard about coming into this particular conversation, for fear of contributing to yet another Donovan/Pienaar/Neville, etc are great/suck/make no difference discussions.

GIven the origin of the thread, Michael's complimenting the goal by LD, take a second or two and look at in context.

First, the space the ball was kicked into, LD created. No accident. His team down by 2, he looked to put a single defender in that position. His teammate saw the defender close and alone on LD with a lot space behind them. Again, no accident. LD made that happen on purpose.

Now the ball is sent in that general direction with the idea that if it bounces thru, guess who's getting to it first? Forget for a minute what happened at the goal-mouth, did you see that defender twist himself around and fall down once he realized he'd fucked up playing LD so close?

Now as I watched that, I didn't know LD was scoring or anything else. But I absolutely thought, "You dickhead". Really, the coaching staff of Slovenia didn't drum it into the defense's head like a 100 times, "Don't crowd Donovan when he's off the ball and there's space for him to run". HaHa.

OK. LD's on the ball with an embarrassing amount of space and play developing. He all but slows to a walk approaching the 'keeper, who (to me anyway) rightly hugs the upright and awaits help. Obviously, he has LD in front of him and can see everything else moving towards him to his right.

You can see LD looking to his left as he approaches the 'keeper. You can even see his head turning to look, even as the space closes between him and the keeper.

He only focuses completely on the keeper when he sees his on-rushing teammates collide and one stumble (pretty funny looking back) and goofy who fell down covering him to begin finally closing. It's then, all the while moving, he tees it up and aims it as he said after "right at the keeper's head".

In that close-in one-on-one, we know who blinked. Blinked and ducked in fact. I mean, you just don't see 'keepers do that. You just don't.

From creating space for his teammate to kick into, all the way to the ball bulging the twine, Landon made it happen. How many possibilities ran thru his head in those few seconds? He considered all of them and when faced with, "I guess I have to shoot" he aimed at the 'keeper's head. Pretty good decision-making, no?

Oh, and while his team was down 2-0 and 40 minutes from going home.

So. 2 things:

1. That's what I saw and I think what Michael saw and what precipitated his post here. I'm wrong in that, no doubt he'll be in here presently to say so.

2. Sorry brother, but this is the first time I've seen you back off so easily and timidly. Heard there's an opening in goal for Slovenia. Oh sorry. They already have a keeper with those exact qualities. Ha.

ps: Slovenia's back-line and keeper are now proven bitches. COY 3 Lions. Easy pickings. Rooney up-front. Attack, attack, attack.

Brendan

That's just something I`ll have to learn to live with.

James. I wasn't backing off easily or timidly. In Hindsight I felt my comment was insulting, so I apologised, thats all. Good night

Apology accepted.

James: exactly what I saw, in every detail.

Interesting now to compare a somewhat similar goal just executed for Brazil by Luciano. Yet somehow, it was nothing in comparison. Against the run of play, yes, but that trick of lulling the opposition into a false sense of security, then hitting them with a simply executed move, is classic Brazil all down the years. Yet the goal, I felt nowhere near the same level of appreciation for. That far into what was expected to be one of the games of the tournament, it had become clear it was a case of more over-hyping. Sure, it was well executed... but it just lacked so much of the context that made Landon's goal the standout moment so far... well, Kiwis apart!

Dave (29) - No explanantion needed brother. I was just having fun about that keeper. Not you. I've seen you hold your ground in here often enough to know you're not timid.

It's still funny seeing him back up out of there.

Michael (31) - Yep. LD came through when US really, really needed it. Here's hoping we get out of the Group. And here's hoping EFC get announce a nice late X-mas gift in January. LD back in Blue.