Why did you do that?!

August 10th, 2008 | by: Brooks Peck |

What a letdown.

The U.S. men’s team dominated the second half against the Netherlands, coming back from a 1-0 halftime deficit with two goals in a matter of eight minutes (Kljestan and Altidore) only to take two silly yellow cards and commit a stupid foul just outside the box so the Netherlands could save face and tie it on a free kick in the 93′.

So, the U.S. goes from automatically advancing to the quarter finals to needing a win or a tie against Nigeria to advance. And they need to do it without Adu or Bradley, who were both shown yellow cards in each of the first two games. Lame.

I’ll be back later with more…

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Alex

WHY! Oh so close. I still think we will advance, but that game took 10 years off my life.
CW

Brutal.
Holden gets the dumbass award for not dishing to kljestan for the 3rd goal.
Great game though. After 20 mins I thought we were going to lose 4 – 0. From about 35 mins on it was all USA until the free kick.
Against Nigeria, where is the creativity going to come from in mifdield? We have to hope for 0-0, 1-1 at best.
Brett

Nigeria game will be tough, but consider this: Two of Nigeria’s starting defenders will be suspended for the game. Nigeria’s roster lists only three other defenders, two of which play in the Nigerian league. Just some food for thought.
http://redbulls.theoffside.com Dave Martinez

Brett – you took the friggin words out my mouf. Nigeria will be weak in back, and we can compensate for Bradley and Adu (possibly Holden in Adus shoes- or Dax McCarty if he is ready, and Bradley can be replaced by Edu, if it doesnt hurt the back too much)
Syler

This game made my emotions go nuts and in the end I was left VERY upset and really just shocked. I agree with every post, the yellow cards, the silly foul, the inability to locate sasha on that break-away…all really really really stupid moves. Oh well we can still advance with a win or tie or with a holland tie or loss so there is still a possibility.

For the Nigeria game I would like to see Altidore start in place of Adu as it seemed like he and Mcbride were combining with plenty of flick ons and quick passes to get into open space. The big problem will be Bradley…his yellow card was potentially one of the dumbest moves I have ever seen on an international stage when it really did nothing to benefit the U.S. Hopefully Dax will be up to the task as I don’t see Feilhaber or Szetela as a possibility for defensive mid and I don’t think Ianni should have to be put into this pressure cooker. Novak has a lot of thinking to do and how his starting 11 come out and perform against Nigeria will go a long ways in making me hate him a bit less.
B-dub

I am upset that Nowak’s tactics to kill the game was 11-man bunkerball, that’s a horrible way to play and it only leads to what we saw here. We should have strived to keep posession, and make limited attacks down the wing, if only to shield the ball at their corners to burn time off the clock.

And what happened to our third sub?!
elle

lets just hope those two Nigerian defenders are really crucial to their game and that we can deal with not having Adu or Bradley.
http://seattle.theoffside.com Steve

man that hurt my stomch.

Either way, Sztelza is more than capable of filling Bradley’s shoes.

Gotta leave Edu there in the back as he has been a total rock.

Feilhaber has his chance to shine now, hope he can come through.
http://www.blabify.com Nnanna

I’m hard pressed to see how the USA will go through now, unless a miracle happens and Japan draws with Holland.
Save for Mikel Obi (Chelsea) , the core of this Nigerian team is the same as the one that narrowly lost in the finals of the U21 against a Messi inspired Argentina