United States 1 Italy 1

A very exciting soccer match. The U.S. dominated most of the action but couldn't pull off the victory. In fact, the U.S. didn't even score a goal, their one goal was an own goal inadvertently scored by an Italian player.

Even so, the U.S. did play well, constantly attacking and forcing the issue.

The game was marred by bad officiating. In the 28th minute an Italian player delivered a vicious elbow to the face of Brian McBride, opening a gash on his face. That player was ejected (red card), so the U.S. was playing 11 on 10.
But right before half time Pablo Mastroeni of the U.S. (sounds like an Italian name) was red carded for a tackle he made. Didn't seem too vicious but he might have broken the dude's ankle. And right after halftime Eddie Pope was given his second yellow card (ejection) so the U.S. played the rest of the game down 10 players to 9.

No team has ever scored with only 9 players but the U.S. almost did. DaMarcus Beasley (benched after game 1 for poor play) came in and scored, but a player was offsides and the goal was disallowed.

A tie for the U.S. though is a moral victory. A win on Thursday against Ghana will salvage the World Cup, and combined with an Italy victory over Czech will grant the U.S. a spot in the next round.

But you can see when watching the game the lack of skill the U.S. has compared to other teams. Most teams score off "set pieces" like goal kicks and corner kicks. The U.S. is always a couple inches off with their kicks.

But at least they salvaged one point out of this deal. It would be nice to score a goal though.