US v. El Salvador

[Desnudo]

Man what an ugly game. How many more times can the keeper waste 5 minutes on the clock before the ref forces a sub? Awful and inconsistent officiating. 8 minutes of stoppage time when the goalie alone wasted 15. If he hadn't sent that El Salvador player off I would have thought he was on their payroll.

[Desnudo]

Since it appears no one else watched this mess I'll summarize for anyone who's interested (spoilers, but very little actual football described because there wasn't any, especially from El Salvador):



1. El Salvador has a player sent off about halfway through period 1 for wearing jewelry (neck chain) after the referee had warned all players not to wear any.

2. El Salvador goalie spends roughly 15 total minutes on the ground at two different times in the first half. He then gets the hat trick when his leg suddenly cramps up for a few minutes in the second half. Fortunately he's all right and able to continue (again). Ref does nothing. He also intentionally steps on DeMarcus Beasley's head, nearly taking one of his eyes out. I hope the game tape gets reviewed. If it is, he'll likely been gone for the rest of the qualifiers. Just an incredibly unsporting display all around from this guy. An embarassment to his country. The unfortunate aspect of Latin American soccer.

3. El Salvador coach is red carded and sent off to the lockers after arguing #1 with the ref.

4. US players continually gets phantom penalties called on them, some of them embarassingly weak. Convey gets a yellow card for a 50-50 ball, while ES players step on, trip and push without even going for the ball.

5. At nearly every dead ball one, if not two, ES players are rolling around like they've been shot in the gut.

5. Clint Mathis comes on late to fire four long distance shots into Row K when there were at least two players wide open for a pass and easy goal on every shot.

6. Brian Ching continues to impress with a great header that opened the scoring in the 5th or 6th minute. Landon Donovan looked great in flashes too, scoring a great left footed goal that gave the final score, 2-0. DeMarcus Beasley was absolutely roasting their defenders. He really needs to work on his passing though.

7. Carlos Bocanegra looked solid on the backline. Tim Howard could have played the game sitting in a lawn chair.

8. Overall the US showed that the have some serious young talent with a lot of pace and energy, although they definitely need work on the technique and finishing aspects. I think this lineup would have toasted Jamaica.

You can now go back to watching college football. :P

[Sharpieman]

That was such bull when the El Salvador keeper lifted up his foot when Beasley was sliding head first near the goal. He should have got a red card. Bastard.

[Desnudo]

Yeah, and the ref and his assistants let that goalie single handedly ruin the flow of the game. Never mind all the ankle stepping and tripping garbage from the other players. The refs really need to be reprimanded, possibly suspended. Just a joke of an officiating crew. Hopefully FIFA or whoever will review tape of the game, like they did in Euro 2004.

[Fonzie]

Yeah, and the ref and his assistants let that goalie single handedly ruin the flow of the game. Never mind all the ankle stepping and tripping garbage from the other players. The refs really need to be reprimanded, possibly suspended. Just a joke of an officiating crew. Hopefully FIFA or whoever will review tape of the game, like they did in Euro 2004.

I saw just part of the match but am still able to agree 100%. Somebody needs to take those officials out to the woodshed.

[Shkspr]

All of you are being too hard on the officials. After all, they've had to completely change their focus from judging gymnastics to refereeing football in three weeks' time. That's got to be tough on anybody. :)

[SirFozzie]

It was fun to watch the ES fans throw bottles and fight amongst themselves. (no, not really)

The first game was good. Speaking as a Revs fan.. the 2nd game was the drizzling shits.

[RPI-Fan]

Was at the game - was a lot of fun. US beat the shit out of those fuckers.