Copa America Centenario
            USA 2016
                         <back-to-sports>

 



USA-Colombia 0-2
Unfortunately, under Jürgen the United States men's soccer, instead
of advancing, has backtracked in both passion and quality.
A mediocre coach, like Klinsmann, takes a team with moderate talent
and skill and, instead of doing the best possible with it, complains about
factors outside his power, puts blame on the players and lets the negatives
of the situation affect his management and, consequently, the quality
and performance of the team to a point of lagging behind in a major
tournament of the second best footballing continent on earth.
A great coach, on the other hand, like Rehhagel, takes a team without
talent and skill and, instead of complaining and attributing blame,
limits his utterances to the minimum possible, boosts the mentality
and fortifies the psychology of his players to the point of dominating
and stunning the best footballing continent on earth.
I like the German coach and wish I had better words to say about his
work, but the problems in the planning and strategy and the lacking
in quality of the U.S. team under his management are so apparent,
especially as contrasted with its past quality and performance, that
there is really not much room for accommodation or for optimism. 


Brasil seems to be consistently and critically favored by serious
refereeing mistakes. Against Ecuador, the perennial problem
with unstable goalkeeping of this team (recall Waldir Peres in
1982) showed again its ugly face when Valencia's cross from
just over the line was fumbled into the net by Alisson Becker.
However, the referee, with the unreliable assistance of the
careless linesman, helped Brasil out and stole 2 precious points
from the Ecuadorian side.


USA-Costa Rica 4-0
A comfortable victory against a very poorly performing team.




The Great Biter, besides the ``Most Vicious Animal" award, has now
won also the Oscar for worst performance in the ``Leading Bench"
role in this tournament. In a pettily and miserably grandiose and
utterly pretentious fashion, the man that did not even wear his shoes
to enter the pitch in the first place, showed concocted anger, angst,
desperation and disappointment by knocking walls and taking off
and throwing a few meters away his unworn shoes that took a few
minutes to untie in a supposedly spontaneous, but utterly and badly
rehearsed, move... Unfortunately, this is the quality of and these are
the "great", most "respected" and best paid of the sport, nowadays...


Unfortunately, another unpleasant surprise erupted with Chile's
fiasco against Bolivia. It makes one wonder whether these copas
of the Americas are any cleaner than anything else in sports
nowadays. It seems that some circles are set upon favoring the
favorites and condemning the ``unliked" in a scandalous and
provocative way...


USA-Paraguay 1-0
Team U.S.A. did what it could in a difficult game after the
slightly strict decision to eject Yedlin with a second yellow.
But the team ought to have put a little more pressure,
despite the difficulty of playing with 10, further up the
court so as to relieve the recurring danger from having
Paraguay encircle (the fortunately very highly and
solidly performing  Guzan's and Brooks') area.



Unfortunately, the mishaps never stop. Yesterday, Mexico was robbed
from a win against Venezuela by a referee that did not see a handball
in the Venezuelan area. Luckily, the ranking in Group C was not
affected by the mistake. On the other hand, it is proper to congratulate
Venezuela for a game well played and for one of the most impressive
goals in the tournament so far.




AND ON TO THE QUARTERFINALS!
GO U.S.A. GO!!
 
USA-Ecuador 2-1
We must be careful... Ecuador is a strong, passionate side and
the Ecuadorian players are workhorses with impressive stamina
and breathtaking determination and stubbornness and the only
way to defeat the team is to match it in determination, passion
and stubbornness... Go USA!

A rather uninspiring United States faced a, fortunately, very
lackluster, as compared to previous performances, Ecuadorean
side and fulfilled its task by a moderate effort. In the quarterfinal
game against, most likely, Argentina a similar performance will,
most likely, lead the team absolutely nowhere. We NEED MORE.
We must PERFORM BETTER...



We witnessed a parody of football last night at the MetLife.
Colombia and Peru shamefully underestimated the intelligence of the
fans and savagely insulted the beautiful sport by a crappy performance
and by abominable theatrics; nearly every touch and every tackle
was made up to be an agonizing death-like experience to both teams'
unworthy actors, especially in the first half, with the referee either
unable and incompetent or unwilling to stop the sorrowful charade.
Both teams' players proved completely unworthy of the footballer's
honor and lacked the essential decency and honesty for anyone to be
able to enjoy an open and fair competition.
I do hope for the sake of Divine Justice that neither of these teams
see the light of day in the next stage of this Anniversary Copa of the
Americas.

AND ON TO THE SEMIFINALS!
GO USA GO!

USA-Argentina 0-4
In this game there is no margin for error. Argentina has given
warning shots and has delivered warning blows and the kids
have to take them very very seriously. Our only option is to
aspire to the cunning and the sophistication of the Masters!


Unfortunately, the team did not perform up to the standards that
are needed to beat one of the best teams of the Americas. We showed
from the start signs that we had not absorbed the tremendous gap in
quality between the two teams that should have forced extra care
in defense that was not hardwired in the team's spirit. Moreover,
the failure of the keeper to ``decide" on how to act in Lavezzi's goal
gave a bitter opening to an already Herculean adventure. The lesson
that should be learned: Yes! One does not have to fear much superior
opponents, but No! One cannot start the game with the air of an equal.
In such games DEFENSE IS THE KEY. Close the opponent's spaces
and press close enough and high enough so as to leave no space for
their developing and monopolizing the game. Unfortunately, in all
those points the U.S. strategy proved catastrophically deficient...




The tournament was marred in its last day of competition by the
undeserved selection of a man, qualified and able for a Hollywood
or a Broadway performance, but unfit for this beautiful sport, to
referee the Final Match, who, after inflicting so much harm in
the first half with uncontrolled distribution of the colored slips
and the strangest of decisions, left us with burned land and
exhausted players in the second half and the overtime, who,
under the circumstances, did the best they could. To do the man
some justice, however, let me also give an advice to the players:
You are all excellent footballers. But learn how to focus on the
game and on showcasing your talent, instead of spending much
of your time on the pitch in theatrics and in trying to fool and
then incessantly complaining to the referee, who is trying hard
to temper your gimmicks and force you to play football instead
of Shakespeare...