From Bad to ... Better

I wanted to watch the Brazil - Croatia match first before commenting on the U.S.'s dreadful performance Monday because I didn't want to wrongly (and prematurely) accuse the Americans of being the worst team in the tournament. Well, Croatia lost 1-0 and had plenty of opportunities to score, so last place currently belongs solely to the USA. Good work.

Yeah, I know, it's early, but for a team ranked fifth in the World, getting smoked 3-0 is embarrassing. (And yes, I'm also aware that the U.S.'s rankings are inflated due to the fact that they're a CONCACAF team. But still, 3-0?) And just so we're clear, the margin of defeat in this game is comparable to the 41-0 spanking the Steelers put on the Browns late last season ... but worse. It's worse because nobody really thought the Browns had a shot at winning that game but the U.S. hype machine had me duped into thinking the Americans might at least put up an effort against the Czech Republic.

Okay, now I'm just being negative, but watching the U.S. lethargically trudge around while the Czech's basically held a glorified practice, brought back a flood of memories from the 1998 debacle in France.In Tuesday's Washington Post Bruce Arena is quoted as calling out Donovan and Beasley for having particularly craptastic games:

U.S. Coach Bruce Arena was critical of several players, saying Donovan "showed no aggressiveness" and "we got nothing out of [midfielder DaMarcus] Beasley."

True that. It's worth mentioning that Eric Wynalda was on PTI talking about the drubbing and where the U.S. team goes from here. He also said that this is the first time Arena has really faced adversity as a coach. It'll be interesting to see if his antics will motivate his players or if they'll pull a Steve Sampson-style revolt by the time this is all said and done. (I have no real feel for Arena as a coach -- I mean, other than the fact that he's the most successful coach in U.S. history -- so as far as I know, he's really good at what he does.)

Well, Beasley wasn't all that psyched about Arena's comments:

Beasley responded to the coach's review by saying, "I was back there defending the whole time, I don't know what [Arena] wants me to do."

Later, when discussing the U.S. team's move to a more aggressive 3-5-2 formation in the second half and Arena's comments, Beasley added: "I was always defending the whole time. That's how the game went. Next time I will leave the guy and play as a striker instead of a midfielder and then we'll see what happens."

Well, it looks like Beasley won't get a chance to test his little theory because, not surprisingly, he won't be starting Saturday.

And let me say that I understand Beasley's frustration, but anybody with at least one good eye could see he played a dreadful game. I have no problem with guys on the wing trying to beat players one-on-one. That's there job. Both Bobby Convey and Beasley either had the worst possible first touches, or hit back passes. All day long. How is that helping to create chances? And can't anybody in the MLS do that?

Mathematically, the U.S. ain't out of it yet, but they're going to have to reach deep and pull their heads out of their asses if they're going to have a chance against Italy. [/End soccer-related rant]

*******Ben Roethlisberger is, by a landslide, the luckiest guy on the planet. When I emailed my buddy Andy with this story from Bouchette indicating that Big Ben could very likely start the season, here's the next email I got back: "Rewarding stupidity." To which I responded, "There's still hope."

I think we can all agree that wearing a helmet probably is a smart thing to do when you're on a bike that can go 200 mph so I won't beat that horse here, but from now on can the Steelers fork over the dough to get Ben a driver ... preferably in a four-wheeled vehicle? Or better yet, just have Barrett Brooks carry Ben everywhere. It'll give him something to do.

*******Last night's Red Sox - Twins get together might've been one of the best games of the season. Johan Santana struck out something like 50 Red Sox (actually, it was 13) and Curt Schilling had a strong outing. Both pitchers gave up one-run, two-out dingers in the seventh inning, but neither got the decision because the game went to extra-innings. And oh yeah, the Twins won thanks to a 12th inning grand slam by Jason Kubel courtesy of Julian Tavarez, this year's Alan Embree.

I haven't seen a lot of Santana over the years (primarily because of these stupid play-each-team-in-your-division-19-times-each rules that MLB thinks will create rivalries at the expense of actually playing other teams in the league) but he makes Josh Beckett look like Matt Clement. And no, that's not a compliment.

*******Alright, I can't very well go without mentioning this. Look, in the scheme of things, this isn't O.J. Simpson type stuff, and I'm sure it won't affect Redick's professional career (he'll still suck ... ba-da-pa!), but this is too funny to pass up:

Redick was arrested soon after 1 a.m. when he turned around as he approached a license check point near the Duke campus, Michael said. He pulled into a parking lot of an apartment complex after police pursued him.

Here's the thing: you'd have less chance of getting arrested if you rolled down your window and just starting screaming, "I'M DRUNK!!" while wearing one of those double-barreled beer helmets, than doing a U-turn right in front of a license check point. That's basic stuff J.J. Come on, you're better than that.