A fair result. Italy 3, United States 1 was a fair result, meaning that all of the factors that came to bear in the match dictated that anything different than an Italy victory would have been surprising.
Still, you have to wonder how different things might have been had the US not been forced to play with ten men for sixty-five minutes.
Speaking of the red card, I'm finding it difficult to work up too much anger over it; it could have gone either way, clearly looked like "dangerous play" to me, and was more unfortunate than anything else. If Clark doesn't commit the foul, the referee isn't put in the position of making the call, and the game is allowed to continue as it should have. But Clark was rash no matter your opinion on which card should have been shown, and I just can't get myself worked up over what is essentially a judgement call.
Thankfully, when Jermaine Jones is eligible (and assuming Bradley calls him in) and Maurice Edu back from injury, Ricardo Clark won't be relied upon anymore. I think Clark has potential, though I've always been concerned about his lack of touch; he plays aggressively, and when poor control is combined with aggressive play, fouls and cards are invariably the result.
After the card, nothing else really mattered. I was happy to see the ten that remained work hard and do their best to hang on to the match, but the result was predictable. Donovan played well, Altidore did a few nice things (though he needs to learn that he should shoot first and ask questions later), and several other acquitted themselves admirably.
While I was disappointed in the loss, and even more so in inconsistent officiating (not sure if I can bring it up to rant level, but it does seem odd that referees are consistently tilting things against the US in crucial moments), I'm slightly encouraged by the performance.
The team's not good enough, as currently constituted, to win in Azteca or get out of the World Cup group stage. The turnaround is too quick to make substantial improvement before facing Mexico in August, but there is still time to improve the team ahead of the World Cup. Brazil is the next test. I'm not optimistic about getting any points, but I do hope we see the same kind of effort and commitment (minus the red; thankfully Bradley will be forced play someone else in the midfield) we saw yesterday.
Speaking of that "someone else" in the midfield; while I think many of us would like to see Jose Franciso Torres, I have a funny feeling it will be Sacha Kljestan instead.
