Group E espionage

May 26th, 2006 | By: Jay | 5 Comments »

I didn’t see the US – Venezeula match yet, but I did see enough of US-Morocco to know that unless the US rehauls their attitude and their tactics, they could leave Germany with nothing but a couple of draws. It pains me to say it, but it’s true.

I did , on the other hand, watch a more formidable Group E opponent tonight : the Czech Republic. Now, clearly I’m going to be biased. Who’s kidding whom. But I got the sense that the Czech team was a big balloon….colorful and impressive at first, but slowly leaking air and not very resistant when pressed. (Hey, I worked hard on that analogy. ha ha)

But seriously…the attacking flair of Nedved, Rosicky and Baros was devoid of any real kind of strategy or tactic. Natural talent they have; but I don’t know that they can come up with a Plan B or Plan C if their Plan A fails. I didn’t see anything in the midfield that should scare the tifosi. A bulldog like Gattuso should snuff out the attack before it gets too deep, and there are no defensive midfield qualities in the side I saw tonight, which ought to open up a lot of counter-attacking possibilities and confusion. The Czechs do have a lot of height and bulk, but aside from Polak none of it is in the back line. Toni should have plenty of chances.

On the flip side, guys like Baros can still bury you if a defensive mistake is made in a bad spot. They are unusually big, and that’s without the services of Koller, who has unexplicably been left off the squad. And of course, they have Peter Cech, one of the best keepers in the world at the moment. He’s huge, he’s quick, and you’re not going to catch him out of position. So good luck getting past him.

I haven’t seen Ghana since the winter, but I’m beginning to believe La Nazionale have got the Group winning side as of right now. Guess we’ll find out a few weeks.

Tags: Azzurri, Czech Republic, Italy

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Comments

By Neo | May 27th, 2006 at 8:06 am

I agree…I’m also starting to get the feeling that the Azzurri are very capable of finishing with three wins in that group…The hope, of course, is that Italy does not have its typical slow start…Having watched the last two USA friendlies, I’m thinking anything but a win for Italy against the USA would be shameful…But again, remains to be seen..

Posted from United States

By Josh | May 27th, 2006 at 8:28 am

“I haven’t seen Ghana since the winter, but I’m beginning to believe La Nazionale have got the Group winning side as of right now. Guess we’ll find out a few weeks.”

–> That bodes well for Brasil….

I agree with both points, US need to get crackin’ even though they thoroughly dominated Venezuela last night. The recent loss of Gibbs doesn’t help either. However, I think we’re seeing Arena experimenting a whole lot (still!)– because they didn’t field their best 11 against Morrocco, and CERTAINLY didn’t start an “A” team against Venezuela (but still dominated). So, yes, I think there’s a lot of room for improvementm but in the wake of the Morrocco game, I think we’ll say better and better play, especially when Arena fields his best players.

As for the Czechs, I couldn’t agree more. They’re the most dangerous club with the least amount of depth in the world. Go figure.
–>They’re the Enron of
Football: Highly rated until they bottom out…. Dropping Koller was plain stupid.

Posted from United States

By mcvc | May 28th, 2006 at 3:49 am

the scrappiness of this u.s. team excites me and worries me at the same time. if they go into competition trying to scrap their way through it, they’re not going to come up with anything but losses. then again, they seem to have a fight and such a will to scrap that it’s kind of hard to totally count them out.

Posted from United States

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Posted from Germany