Disgusting

That’s my judgment on the job Jorge Lariondo, the Uruguayan who wore the referee’s shirt in today’s USA-Italy match. Respected footballers like Franz Beckenbauer had already called out the officials for going in their pockets far too frequently in the World Cup and this guy must have thought, hey, screw them I’ll give as many cards as I like.

The result? USA had two men sent off when they clearly had not earned it, especially Pablo Mastrentonio, and Italy lost a midfielder first. Daniele De Rossi, though, got tossed justifiably for a flagrant foul that drew blood from Brian McBride’s forehead.

Lariondo was suspended in 2002 for “irregularities” and wasn’t eligible to work the 2002 Cup finals. How bad was his performance today? At the 49th minute he’d called 20 fouls on the Americans and only seven on Italy, including all three reds. Every one of the TV people said he wouldn’t be working any more matches in the tournament and I surely hope that’s true.

We almost had a second goal, in the 65th minute, which could have been a winner. It seemed like one more bad call from the ref but replays showed that for once he got it right with McBride interfering on Buffon from an offside position.

Neither team helped itself with poor shooting throughout when chances came. Keller made a few terrific saves towards the end but otherwise neither keeper was called to do much.

At the 84th minute, I was confused on why Arena was holding onto our third sub. He absolutely should have brought on Eddie Johnson, Josh Wolff or Brian Ching!!! McBride was a warrior but like most of the starters on both sides was out of gas. Marcelo Lippi had used all three of his options and couldn’t have matched our pair of fresh legs. Damarcus Beasley had come on, it was his shot that was almost our second score, but even he seemed caught up in the slogging of the last ten minutes.

The game ended 1-1, we’re still alive to advance with a win over Ghana and a Czech win over Italy, and our players did indeed learn from Monday’s debacle. Despite how negatively Lariondo affected the result I can’t help wondering if there was a second goal available if Bruce Arena swapped in a new forward.