USA Still Alive

America's somewhat impressive 1-1 draw with Italy has kept them alive. Combined with Ghana's surprising victory over the Czech Republic, the Group of Death will come down to the final matchday with all 4 teams having a chance to advance. The possible scenarios:

USA defeats Ghana, Czech Republic defeats Italy: Czech Republic wins group, Italy and USA tie for 2nd, goal differential determines who advances. At the moment, the US's goal differential is -3, Italy's is +2.

USA defeats Ghana, Czech Republic and Italy draw: Italy wins group, Czech Republic and USA tie for 2nd. Czechs have a goal differential of +1, so we'd need to beat Ghana by 4 goals if the Czech score 1 or 0, and 5 goals if they score more.

USA defeats Ghana, Italy defeats Czech Republic: Italy wins group, USA finishes 2nd. Czech and Ghana tie for 3rd.

Ghana defeats USA, Czech Republic defeats Italy: Czech Republic and Ghana tie for 1st, Italy finishes 3rd, USA 4th.

Ghana defeats USA, Czech Republic ties Italy: Ghana wins group, Italy finishes 2nd, Czech 3rd, US 4th.

Ghana defeats USA, Italy defeats Czech Republic: Italy wins group, Ghana finishes 2nd, Czech 3rd, USA 4th.

USA ties Ghana, Czech Republic defeats Italy: Czech Republic wins group, Ghana and Italy tie for 2nd. Ghana's goal differential would be even, Italy would have to lose by 2 to match that, which means it would come down to total goals scored.

USA ties Ghana, Czech Republic ties Italy: Italy wins group, Czech Republic and Ghana tie, but Czech would advance with better goal differential.

USA ties Ghana, Italy defeats Czech Republic: Italy wins group, Ghana finishes 2nd, Czech 3rd, USA 4th.

So 3 teams have a chance to win the group, and all 4 teams have a chance to advance.

The final matches of the group will occur simultaneously on the 22nd.

The following teams have advanced to the knockout stage: Germany, Ecuador, England, Argentina, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Brazil. As of yet, no team has clinched a group victory.

Something I've noticed about the 2006 World Cup so far is the massive amount of yellow and red cards. In the 26 matches played so far, there have been 143 yellow cards issued and 10 reds. That's 5.5 yellows a match, and a red card pretty much every other match. In the 2002 World Cup, there only about 4 yellows a game, and a red every 4th match. As demonstrated in the Italy-US match, the refs have been very willing to dig into their pockets and pull the plastic out.