Photo by ISIphotos.com
When Sunday began it had been assumed that the 23 members of the U.S. national team would be the ones heading home from the Confederations Cup disappointed. After the United States rousing 3-0 win vs. Egypt, and Brazil's 3-0 win over Italy, the results meant that only one American player would be heading home to the United States.
That player is Giuseppe Rossi.
Ever since he left New Jersey a decade ago, Rossi has made it a tradition to return to the United States for part of his off-season vacation. That vacation will begin on Monday.
Okay, so perhaps gloating in Italy's failure may seem like a bit much, but considering the anguish Rossi's two goals against the United States put U.S. fans through, you can't really blame American fans for gloating a bit. So when they celebrate the fact that it was Rossi who was stripped on the play that led to Brazil's vital third goal, and revel in Italy's elimination, you can't really blame them, can you?
HaHaHa @ Special1, I don’t think the second commenter got the joke…
I’m still giddy this morning. Not sure why some of you are such Debby Downers (kpugs as usual) about the whole thing. Sure Bradley made some bungles, but the Nats put together an entertaining, gutsy, impressive performance against Africa’s best team (the best the team has put together collectively since US-Italy in ’06). It was something to be immensely proud of.
On Rossi, yeah he is a traitor, but anyone saying his stock dropped precipitously after yesterday is delusional. Despite the turnover against Kaka that led to the 3rd goal, he looked like Italy’s most likely player to score in the 2nd half. Sure, I am still pissed off about him celebrating against his native country and think its hilarious, gratifying and ironic that we advanced at the expense of Italy, however, that does not mean I am going to engage in some of the scary nativist/jingoistic rhetoric being bandied around on here.
Ok you fire Bob Bradley people are idiots. Who did you want him to play besides Bornstein? I will listen to the Boca people solely based on Demerit’s play with Onweyu, but he wasn’t fit. Who else? Pearce has been terrible since the hexagonal began and during his club season. If you say Wynne you deserve to get smacked. So who else on the left?
Now to the Beasely start v Brazil. He risked putting in a veteran that was part of the squad that tied Italy in WC 06 and is still capable of playing well. He is just not on form right now. Remember he is only 27…and hopefully has his best football yet to play if you believe the knee injury didn’t completely derail him. He just needs regular club time. Also, Adu=defensive liability also not on form and Torres does not have the pace to play on the outside for us in this offense.
On to the Kljestan start versus Brazil. This is really the only bad one, and I would like to have seen Torres and/or Feilhaber here for their ability to control the ball and deliver good passes. Slot Donovan at outside mid-fielder and either play play one of Benny/Torres and Davies or slot Benny just behind Altidore and Torres with Bradley.
In any of these cases, BB showed he can at least evaluate when his team plays poorly. The start of Clark was absolutely the right move, and it paid off huge. He allowed Bradley to join the attack, and I think his partnering with him is safe at least until JJ comes or Edu is healthy. You can’t argue with the results. We are second in the hexagonal and got further in Confed Cup than anyone would have thought (I still think we beat Italy if Clark isn’t sent off). If it wasn’t for Demerit being gassed on the third goal and Onweyu’s misplay of the 2nd goal, it’s a draw.
For all the Bob Bradley haters see Isaac’s post at 1:31 AM.
lol @ Oogie Pringle
Beasley needs to go back to the chicago fire, and then when they get tired of him, retire.
that rhymed!
Hey Stephen, ther’s an Italy fans blog site for you to go cry in, please tell them how Italy got screwed, not us, we have had our share of getting screwed already. (2 inexistent reds and uncalled hand in the box)
All these fools who are calling for Bradley’s job are way off. First, the team has played well. The match vs Italy, if it wasn’t for the freaking straight Red, the US could have at the least tied Italy. For whatever reason, the US always plays Italy hard. See WC 06.
Now let’s say you idiots get your wish… Who would be the next coach? A foreing coach?
Have we not learned anything from the mistakes the Mexican team has made in the past years? Come on!
Thanks for stoking the fire Ives! I had no idea that a member of the Italian national team liked to visit family in the United States. Must be some cousins or other distant relatives. Huh, too bad he wasn’t born here, he might have been a valuable addition to our squad.
@jackie–I just gotta luv ya. When so many of us here painstakingly (at times) give opponent/rivals the props that they deserve, you completely and utterly ignore it but when anyone around here is drinking the hateraid you are all on it.
You are so objective. Please do not change. It would be very confusing. On second thought, since you want to be the beacon for giving props when they are due, why don’t you take your own advice.
Im only dissapointed no one broke his legs.
we dont need Benedict Rossi here over the summer. He loves Italy so much let him stay his a$$ over there.
“This was a failure of the tiebreaking formula. Looking at the table, you think “okay, three teams tied, and all beat each other, so let’s first look at goal differential – that eliminates Egypt.”
So, now you’re down to Italy and the U.S. How the @(*)!@*$ isn’t the next question “well, who won between those two teams?” Instead, you go to GOALS FOR? It makes no sense whatsoever.
Stuff like this is why I hate all international sports governing bodies. They don’t take the time to think through their rules in actual real-world situations until it’s too late. North American sports are continually tweaking their rules in reaction to real-world events. FIFA, meanwhile, still maintains this logic-stretching tiebreaking procedure”
Head to head has to be thrown out in a 3 way tie; you then cant logically bring it up to then decide between two teams after ignoring it to eliminate that one team. Any factor to decide a tie-break is just as logical as the other. It is all defined before hand, meaning they did indeed think about it, and they even recorded it for actual application.
WHO ARE YA?!
Ives, quit whining. My god, your OCD over Rossi is embarassing yourself. Get over it.
Posted by: BK
I’m disappointed in this article; what is gained by stoking the fire? Where is the news, or analysis? If you like or appreciate Rossi, fine, but why revel in his misfortune? Celebrate the US victory.
Rossi can suck it. I’m so glad that his bandwagon Benedict Arnold turn did not produce results for him. I hope that serves as a lesson for other Americans who abandon their country in its time of need.
Nice title Ives – if you see Rossi hanging out at the Shore, you know what to do.
Rossi has an affinity for dolphins and will undergo “dolphinoplasty”, surgically altering his appearance to resemble that of a dolphin. He is stuggling with what he is (am I American? Italian? or a sea living mammal?) and will only feel comfortable/at home in the sea.
Ives… I woke up this morning and thought it was a dream…
Nice title…Bradley still needs to go.
Talk about suspect, Bradley still took out Altidore, who was contributing significantly and looked as if to score immenently, and put in Conor (absolutely terrible), who dribbled right out of bounds at least 2 times. At least Beasely remained on the bench, but we need to see Adu and Torres.
This was a failure of the tiebreaking formula. Looking at the table, you think “okay, three teams tied, and all beat each other, so let’s first look at goal differential – that eliminates Egypt.”
So, now you’re down to Italy and the U.S. How the @(*)!@*$ isn’t the next question “well, who won between those two teams?” Instead, you go to GOALS FOR? It makes no sense whatsoever.
Stuff like this is why I hate all international sports governing bodies. They don’t take the time to think through their rules in actual real-world situations until it’s too late. North American sports are continually tweaking their rules in reaction to real-world events. FIFA, meanwhile, still maintains this logic-stretching tiebreaking procedure.
Rossi’s family and friends may welcome him, but Rossi will also be welcomed by fresh “Rossi=Traitor” graffiti as he drives along the 46 to visit his parents in Clifton.
I just hope come the World Cup this smack talk doesn bite us in arse.
It should have read “when a close defeat would have sufficed” for Egypt.
If people have been saying to fire Bob Bradley over the results in the Hexagonal then please keep in mind that we only started losing after injuries to Brian Ching and Frankie Hejduk, as well as Steve Cherundolo. We also had one game where Tim Howard was suspended and we could have used him.
Bob Bradley’s decisions have been suspect but some of them wouldn’t have been made were it not for injuries. Barring injury, this is what we should/could see in August
————-Altidore—-Ching————-
Donovan—————————–Dempsey
————-Bradley—–Clark————-
Bocanegra—DeMerit—–Onyewu—Cherundolo
——————-Howard——————
Slight satisfaction in Italy going home (major satisfaction that the US advanced), but I can’t hate on the guy. I won’t apologize for advancing. The boys did what they had to do. Is Italy or Egypt more deserving of advancing? Probably not. Italy won their only game by barely beating a 10-man USA team. Egypt had a major choke when a close victory would have sufficed. If we don’t get two questionable red cards, perhaps we wouldn’t have needed a victory today–or at least not as many goals.
Seriously Joe, I agree with Tommy H. Are you really even a USMNT fan, or are you just another troll in disguise?
Here’s the thing Joe: We have less of a chance of winning if we don’t try. We don’t go into these matches expecting a win, we go into them expecting the team to play their heart out. This is the kind of game where the scoreline means little if the team puts forth the effort and fights for it.
it would have been MUCH sweeter if Rossi´s teammate, Jozy, would have scored.
Fire Bob Bradley. yes happy we advanced, don’t care about Rossi but it doesn’t change the fact that we haven’t been prepared to play against good competition. I bet we see DMB on Wednesday….
Ives, quit whining. My god, your OCD over Rossi is embarassing yourself. Get over it.
No, you can’t blame us. I really enjoy the fact that he’s headed home.
Hey Joe, Way to keep a positive attitude. Maybe they shouldn’t show up at all. Just surrender. Way to go.
Does anyone here really think we deserve to be in the semi’s? We get destroyed by the good teams and get a lucky break. Now we get to play Spain, a team that is going for the all-time record for 36 games without defeat, who are going to wipe the floor with us. We are not a good team. There is nobody here that really thinks that we are going to do well in the WC. We are going to get drawn in a easy group and everyone is going to expect easy qualification and guess what, we are going to look like the MLS quality side we really are.
I still say fire Bradley but there is no way that will happen now. At least he got them to play with some intensity yesterday. That doesn’t take away from the fact that he made some horrible decisions in the last few games and they’ve been playing awful (until yesterday). So my bet is Bob’s job is secure through 2010…
Rossi can kiss my big, fat, hairy, red, white, and blue ass.
Interesting stat- pertaining to Sunday’s rosters.
Average age;
Brazil 27
Italy 28
USA 24
Great title, but I was hoping it was Beasley that was sent home.
Italy looks tired lately
Best headline ever
Ok. And Rossi did get stripped. But he had two absolute bombs of shots on frame against Brazil when he was brought on and is still a 5’8” kid from New Jersey proving that at least one American can play at the top level of the game. What happened yesterday was a great result, but it required a undermaned and clearly exausted Egypt, about 10 minutes of Brazilian brilliance, and a complete collapse on Italy’s part for it to happen.
As far as I am concerned, Spain should be the game that decides a lot of these players’ fates. Clark still doesn’t look like he belongs. Bornstein seems to play well one-to-one, but is out of place too often. Dempsey had a few very nice moments yesterday and mostly terrible moments, but he needs to be a starting striker as I’ve long urged with Altidore in pair (that he scored about a minute after being pushed up is not a conincidence). And Benny needs a role against Spain (as does Torres for Clark, but it won’t happen). Bottom line, the post=game critique of the U.S. play should not include words like “tired,” “uninvolved,” “out of place” or the like. They can’t reasonably be expected to get a result, but a showing comaprable to the 4-2 friendly loss to Brazil a few July’s ago would be good.
Best headline yet, Ives. Your story ideas are priceless. Congrats.
Way off topic: If Onyewu goes to Fenerbache as is being reported I think it’s a big mistake. They basically play in a one team league.
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/9713868/Onyewu-set-to-snub-Prem-switch
Hey, who cares about Rossi right now when the US pulled off a miracle yesterday!!!
I felt like I was in a twilight zone when I went outside after the game and no other person was excited as I was, because none of them follow the US team, much less follow soccer. These next two days will be the best for me as a US supporter. Rossi going home early is icing on the cake, and it’s the best damn cake I’ve ever tasted.
I used to hate the guy too. All the hate in the world isn’t going to bring a world class player in Rossi to our team. It’s time to live and let live. That being said there is a certain level of satisfaction to seeing him going home early.
Greatest title ever.
Do us a favor ans don’t come. You want to be Italian, stay in Italy, you’re not welcome here
GET CRUSHED ITALY
Ives, I always wonder. Why don’t you say ‘we’ about American soccer fans?
come to think of it, Rossi is our scapegoat, or more like a symbol of all the press and countries that dont respect US Soccer.
now i can see why peeps are clowning him!
i could care less about this rossi fluke. overhyped. it was a little fun to clown on him at first, but i ain’t gonna kick him/Italy as they’re on the ground. maybe if ur from his hometown, ya, that makes sense.
italy has some big issues – losing to a #40 ranked team then getting “man-handled” by Brazil. Pirlo can’t do everything, Lippi, and yes, Toni sucks.
Best player in the tourney so far is Lucio – that guy took Toni & Donovan out of the game. He was even taunting some Italian player 10 years his younger as he beat him to the ball. Lucio is a fiend!
…we’ll still beat ’em! ahaaa USA USA USA!
Great title Ives. Hahahaha.
Shut up realmilk!
Sushant Rao
Your comment was excellent.
Enjoy Bobby as the USMNT @ WC 2010.