Time To Step It Up Lads!

With a little time to kill in advance of the train to Hannover today, am putting up another short post to advance tomorrow's do-or-die U.S. match with Italy.

A loss effectively ends the U.S. team's World Cup with a meaningless match against Ghana remaining. It would also allow the haughty Europeans to say, "see, the U.S., is just not that good. Stick to baseball." Have already heard that one too many times over here.

A win keeps things interesting. How to get it?
The consensus on the street here with other Americans I've run across seem to be pretty universal. The central midfield needs to be tougher. Clint Dempsey deserves a crack at it and John O'Brien, the most experienced European-based U.S. player, needs to go as long from the start as his fitness allows. The third change would be to get Eddie Johnson on as the withdrawn forward behind McBride, where Brian can be the knock-down target and Eddie can run onto the ball.

More importantly, the boys have to play quicker and with more confidence. Move the ball one and two touches and play their game without being indimidated. Against the Czech Republic, there was a definite deer-in-the-headlights thing going on. That one's over, move on and and show 'em we can shock the world --- again.

Got to go, but tomorrow is a watershed day for U.S. soccer.
Make sure to watch it live, 3 p.m., EDT kickoff.

As with all the content of this blog, written and photographic, Copyrighted 2006, All Rights Reserved, Perry McIntyre, Atlanta, GA - USA.