USA men v. Guatemala

Tonight (now) on ESPN2.

I have no idea if any of our guys are starting --

Thanks for the heads up. This was an extremely physical match last time...

Well, nobody I know reading the Unprofessional Foul liveblog. Keep in mind the US is assured of moving to the next stage, so it's not like they need the A side tonight. Guatemala needs points, though.

Even without the "A" team, the USA handled Guatemala easily, 2-0 goals from Kenny Cooper (great thu ball from Jozy Altidore) and set piece shot from Freddy Adu.

There was a medical emergency, the ref swallowed his whistle.

Probably the worst no calls I've ever seen, especially one play where the defender grabbed Altidore's arm on a breakaway and got dragged 5 yards.

The Ref was a Mexican judge, and I think Mexico needed goal differential to get in to the WC.

Complete disgrace.

From one blogger: "Someone will have to lose a limb for this referee to give a foul."

That was a bad call when Altidore had his jersey held, but, honestly at the national league level flopping irks me even more. As much as I love watching the abilities of Adu and Altidore, there's way, way too much flopping going on at the national team levels...

I liked FIFA's idea of having extra refs available to watch for flopping in the penalty box area that was being explored recently. I hope that happens. Flopping ruins the beautiful game...

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:From one blogger: "Someone will have to lose a limb for this referee to give a foul."

Remember when Michelle E. got taken down by Erin Hardy in the box with no call last year?

The ref was Jesse Johnson. He's famous for a no call when Ronnie O'Brien got taken down by Dema Kovalenko with a cleats-up tackle in the box in an MLS game. O’Brien stole the ball from Kovalenko and raced into the penalty area, only to be hit by Kovalenko with a lunging, two-footed tackle from the side in the 86th minute. both bones in his lower leg were fractured, leaving hom to be carted away wil his leg pointing in a direction that God clearly hadn't intended.

No foul was called by referee Jesse Johnson.

Kovalenko broke the leg of another Burn player, Brandon Pollard, with a similar tackle during a playoff match in 1999 while he was playing for the Chicago Fire. Pollard subsequently had to retire.

So a guy nearly DID lose a limb without a call.

athleticjames wrote:That was a bad call when Altidore had his jersey held, but, honestly at the national league level flopping irks me even more. As much as I love watching the abilities of Adu and Altidore, there's way, way too much flopping going on at the national team levels...

I liked FIFA's idea of having extra refs available to watch for flopping in the penalty box area that was being explored recently. I hope that happens. Flopping ruins the beautiful game...

On a tangent, I thought the commercial for Sports Soup (Versus) with the soccer guy flopping was hilarious.