Well, much to Greg's chagrin (due to my yelling at the TV and waking him up this morning) the USA gt blasted by Poland. Rather than carry on about how annoying and frustrating the game was, you can read about it here and here.

There is very little the US can take away from this game. Their defense was exposed, again, despite the best efforts of Eddie Pope, who has manned the middle effectively all three games, and outside backs Tony Sanneh and Frankie Hedjuk. Hedjuk is an all-energy guy, who has stood in and made solid plays, and Sanneh has been very effective at starting and contributing to the attack. Unfortunately, Jeff Agoos has been made to look silly, which is too bad for the "former" American defensive stalwart, who has contributed so much to the US cause before this trounament. I say "former" because I will be shocked if he is in the lineup for the next game, as he was pulled out of this one in the first half in favor of midfielder Damarcus Beasely as the US switched to a 3-5-2 attacking formation to make up the 20goal deficeit.

And yes, I do say "next game" for the US. As I have said before in my Copa ramblings, it is often better to be lucky than good, as Korea defeated Portugal 1-0. And to see how close a short-handed Portugal squad came to the equalizer in the final minutes, I can't shake the feeling the US doesn't "deserve" the chance to continue.

That is folly, of course. This is the World Cup, and you take what you can get. France and Argentina would gladly take our position, and even mighty Italy needed some fortune to advance. Even though they earned a draw against Mexico yesterday -- thanks to a late goal by a substitute -- they still needed Ecudor to beat Croatia, which they did.

You can look at the positives, and see that the US is advancing because they did what Poland and Portugal Couldn't, and that is get a point out of host Korea, in their 1-1 draw Monday morning. On the othe hand, after a miraculous, splendid first 38 minutes against Portugal, wherein they marched to a 3-0 lead, they have been largely outplayed. The first half against Korea wasn't so bad, as even though they weren't in control of the play most of the time, they still generated chances and even got the go-ahead goal from Mathis -- but the second half of both games were brutal.

After Poland jumped out 2-0 five minutes in, the USA largely controlled play, as the Poland defense packed it in -- which by circumstance effecivley eliminated the US speed advantage -- and played counterattack. The USA still couldn't really generate solid chances; Poland controlled the air with their large defenders -- I don't think the US won a header in the Poland penalty area all game -- and the US attack seemed to press it with too many long shots, most of which sailed harmlessly over the cross-bar.

But, whether we "deserve" it or not, we live to play another day. Next up is Mexico, as the "Sweetest 16" single elimination starts. This could be/should be a great game against our regional rivals, and is emminently winnable, provided we find our form and play to our capabilities. Sunday night at 11:25, on ESPN. Hopefully it will be a classic.

I'm going to post my "sweetest 16" comments a little later.