Still no EJ apparently

Anyone who thought that Eddie Johnson would start (that includes me) should check again. Arena's comments make it pretty clear that EJ will not be a starter against Ghana. This is unfortunate, particularly in light of yesterday's revelation that Arena is not approaching this game in terms of scoring lots of goals. Don't get me wrong, I think the last thing Arena should do is tell the team, "Look, you've gotta score 5 goals and keep Ghana out of the net". That's not what I'm advocating...

What I am saying is that the US approach to this game should be, "Score goals". A 1-0 win just isn't going to cut it... We haven't scored a goal yet in this Cup and we should be focusing all of our energy on "putting the bulge in the back of the old onion bag" and we should be thinking in terms of offense...

While our advancement isn't likely if Czech Republic and Italy tie... it increases dramatically with each goal we score... even a 3-0 scoreline gives us a decent chance of advancing (a 2-0 Czech Republic win would do it while a 3-1 win would result in drawing lots with Italy). I hope that Arena is just engaging in his traditional gamesmanship with the question of offense and EJ. If, however, we come out with McBride alone up top, I would fully expect the Czechs and Italians to just play a game for show in midfield and take their 0-0 tie all the way to the bank.

Finally, keep in mind what is scary to the other teams. A Ghana win or a Ghana self-destruction... The way I see it, us scoring lots of goals is great if we keep a clean sheet and its great even if we give up a few (imagine the nervous Italians and Czechs if we're up 3-2 at half time).