Has anyone else been watching these matches? Iraq and South Africa was fairly entertaining for a scoreless draw, while Spain's 5-0 beat down of New Zealand lost any intrigue after Torres hat trick before the 20' mark.
Brazil leads Egypt 3-1 this morning, and the USA will probably get beat soundly by Italy this afternoon. I'm not a big fan of the overall draw of the tournament since Group A with Spain seems a lot like Lakers playing in the NBADL, while Group B is comparable to a mediocre NCAA Final Four.

I caught some of each game. I saw Torres' second and third goal, Spain looked incredible...granted it was against NZ.

Yeah, I noticed the pools seem quite unbalanced.

Yeah, the US should get beaten by Italy today, but remember, the US did tie them 1-1 in the 2006 World Cup. So, surprises do happen. Crappy draw for the US though. Brazil and Italy in the same group pretty much makes it a formality who will advance.

The A group looks crappy because they give the host a spot as a seeded team with Spain being the other seed. So, group B gets two top teams and group A gets one top team, plus the host.

US up 1-0 at half, but playing a man down due to a very questionable red card on Clark.

Gonna be tough to hold Italy 10 v 11.

That was a complete bullshit red card on Clark. It was worthy of a yellow, but to pull a red card on a guy who had yet to commit a foul and was only slightly reckless on the foul is a load of crap.
I'd like to see one match against the Italians where excessive red cards don't play a factor.
We did get a bit lucky on the off-sides call on the own goal, but then the foul on Altidore before the PK goal probably should have drawn a yellow.

The United States has supposedly not given up a short handed goal in 140 minutes of International Play, but since they are playing Italy, a team they have never beaten that might not matter much.

1-1, after a goal by Rossi in the 59'.

i've always the the yellow/red card system was pretty ridiculous

2-1 Italy, so much for that well played first half.

Ah. I think they held their own down a man.

me too, and had a decent number of chances.

Yeah, but they should be past moral victories and shouldn't have to worry about always playing a man down against the Italians.

Seriously, what is the point of this tournament?

Except perhaps to make some little teams seem big by ignoring the fact that the Top 20 sides in Europe are better than anything outside of South America.

is this being replayed tonight?

Yeah. 10 p.m. ET. on ESPN2

It really sucks that Rossi turned down a chance to play for the USA in 2006 and then scored two goals against them. I'm not for blocking him from playing for his dream team, since he has dual citizenship, but we can't be expected to improve that much when we lose players of that quality to other countries.

Red Card was a joke and largely decided this game. The US could not be expected to hang with Italy down a man for the majority of the game.

The ref swallowing his whistle when Donovan got absolutely mugged in the box was ridiculous, that was a clear foul

Poor goalkeeping on the second Italian goal, that should have been handled

but seriously, what is the story with this tournament?

I had to come in this thread and not wait to watch on the DVR at home didn't I?

Well, that's that. No way they get a result against Brazil. Italy was their only chance of taking a point off anyone but Egypt.

Not sure if any sporting event really has a "point." But, some good teams here should make for a few good games to watch.

Brazil annihilated the USA 3-0. They scored two goals before the 20' mark and the Americans played a man down again late in this one. I'm glad I just read a recap and didn't actually watch any of this,

Egypt takes out Italy, and the Americans somehow become a wild card in all of this.

I know we have a lot of other sports that culls the herd of talented athletes that might have been soccer players otherwise, but with 300 million people how can we not possibly find talent to actually be at least a bit competitive?

We looked asinine at times against Brazil. I know they are a Top 5 in the world team, but we have backing, and training facilities, and coaches upon coaches, tons of younger people playing and still year after miserably year we get schooled.

I love watching games on the FSC, and cant see how after watching the Premier League, La Liga etc, all winter, then watching MLS games people cant get super frustrated by our (USA) slow play and lack of creativity? Dont our players watch themselves and think, "sheesh, i gotta step up or little Robinho is going to twist my undies around my ankles."

I am sick to death of the commentary that implies well, we just have to make some changes, blah, blah, blah. Then lose looking like kids against Costa Rica.

I say we Annex Netherlands and root for the ORANGE~!

Sucks to be you Italy! Brazil made you their bitch 3-0.

The USA annihilated Egypt 3-0 and now gets to play Spain in the Semis, while Brazil plays South Africa.

The Yanks stand no chance against the current World's best, but it was nice to make it through a tough group like that.

Yea it's gonna be ugly against Spain, but good for the US in advancing to the semis.

Holy Fucking Shit!

I was totally down on the boys after the first two games, but I gotta hand it to them today. Yeah, yeah, probably no hopers against Spain, but today is a damn fine day to be a fan of the US team.

Thanks Brazil.

And yeah, Spain vs. Brazil is a dream final for this thing. Would make for some beautiful play.