USA-Italy: The Big Bear's Take

Image from New York Times

• Well, first and foremost, our hatred for Giuseppe Rossi is well placed. Fuck that Billy Joel-looking motherfucker. Fuck him right in the ear.
• The Clark red card was devastating. Even though the team responded very, very well, his dismissal was likely responsible for Italy's first two goals. Had a defensive/holding midielder (i.e. Clark) been on of the field, Rossi and De Rossi would likely have been closed down before they were able to fire off their respective shots.
• That being said, the red card was a fair decision. Clark's tackle wasn't malicious by any means, but it was knee high and very late. The fact that Alexei Lalas thought that it was a crazy decision only helps to solidify this point. I think by now we've all learned never to listen to Alexei Lalas.
• Most of the guys out there (at least on the American side) played as well as, if not better than, I have ever seen them play. And yet we ended up losing by two goals. Obviously, one of the reasons for this discrepancy was the aforementioned red card, but the final result also speaks, to some degree, to the sheer difference in talent between the two squads. Now, provided we qualify, it won't be long before World Cup hysteria (and by "hysteria", I mean like 2 or 3 articles) will take over here in the US and some prognosticators in the media will start to predict ridiculously great things for the men's national team. It's time to be realistic. Our goal should be simply to progress out of the group stages. We could get lucky and make it farther, but, based on talent alone, it doesn't look like we should expect the team to recreate the side's quarterfinal run from 2002. 
• Despite the result, I'm proud of the side. They deserved at least a point. Landypants (of whom I normally am excessively critical) and the Gooch (besides his mistake on the De Rossi goal), in particular, should receive extra plaudits.
• The team has come a long way from the 3-1 loss to Costa Rica a couple of weeks ago. Still, we haven't improved much from 2006. It's time to let Bob Bradley go. He seems like a decent guy,  and is probably the best American for the job, but he isn't going to take the team to the next level, whatever that may be. We need a change. My suggestion: throw a ton of money at Guus Hiddink.
• Oh, and in case you were curious about the Billy Joel comment: