Thoughts from the US-Portugal Game

The US-Portugal game had an exciting (and for us Americans, heart-breaking) finish. Here are some of my random thoughts after watching the game. *The United States struggled with passing against Ghana. Such was not the case against Portugal. I was impressed with the quality of the passing. Yes, there were some bad passes, but there are always going to be bad passes. The overall passing, though, was much improved, as was clearly demonstrated by the second U.S. goal, the result of four or five excellent passes strung together. *With better passing, of course, comes better possession. The United States also did a much better job possessing the ball against Portugal than they did against Ghana. The better possession not only led to two U.S. goals, but it also helped keep Portugal from creating much in the way of offense. *Speaking of Portugal and offense, for the supposed #4 team (according to the FIFA rankings), Portugal did not look that good. Ronaldo looked lost, their attack was not terribly creative, and the only legitimate goal they scored was the last-second goal to get the tie. If ever a team deserves to fall in the rankings, I say it's Portgual. *Speaking of falling, Portugal flopped around like a bunch of freshly-caught fish. Granted, pretty much every team flops to some degree, choosing to go down instead of struggling along to maintain their balance after a strong challenge. Portugal, however, exaggerated--and at times, completely faked--the contact that occurred 11 times. They earned 0 yellow cards for it, however. FIFA needs to crack down on diving. The Laws of the Game already say that any simulation must be yellow-carded (no option), but most referees prefer to ignore the contact rather than issue a doubtful yellow. That needs to change. FIFA needs to instruct the World Cup referees to book any simulation, no matter how doubtful. It will result in quite a few stoppages and some questionable yellows, but it will crack down on the diving. As it is, I'm surprised that all 22 players don't just fall over and grab their ankles the minute the referee whistles for kickoff.