Ellas Did!

Did not see that coming, but a red card changes everything.  Zito h Ellas!

Clearly the red card against Nigeria, one that was deserved since the players were out of bounds AND he showed his spikes, changed the momentum of the game after Greece gave up another early and weak goal.  But the best part of the game for me was that Greece attacked.  

Red card or no red card, Ellas deserved to win that game.

My soccer high is muted by the horrible foul/off sides/whatever call versus the U.S. late in their game versus Slovakia.

The U.S. came out with purpose in the second half - and unlike Greece did not need a red card to wake up the team's competitive spirit.  We took it to Slovenia (which sounds weird considering we have 300 million people and Slovenia is the size of Connecticut) in the second half and deserved a win instead of a tie.

As folks know, the frustrating thing about the Greek team is their fatalism and inability to fight back.  For the U.S. the flat starts are equally vexing.  How a team playing on a stage like the World Cup can come out flat is beyond me.  

Perhaps it's as simple as the line up.  At halftime coach Bob Bradley replaced Findley and Torres, and the U.S. was much better with Feilhaber and Edu in the lineup.  I guess we'll see next week when we play a critical match against Algeria, who surprisingly tied England today.

Our group is still wide open.  The good news is the U.S. controls its destiny.   A win over the former French colony means we advance to the knock out round.  

Greece, as it is with its huge debt, needs help to advance. But Ellas can still make it out of the group stage.  Best bet for Greece is that Ellas ties Argentina (doable since the Albicelestes may rest their best players after clinching their group with the rout of South Korea), and a win by Nigeria, playing for pride, over Korea. That would leave Argentina with 7 points (assuming a tie), Greece with 4, with Korea and Nigeria with 3.

So go USA, Greece, and Nigeria!