Props to the Pharaohs

Go ahead and freak, Hadary. You earned it.

Scoreline - June 18, 2009
Egypt: 1
Homos 40'
Italy: 0


Okay, okay, having needless badmouthed the Egyptian national team - they go ahead and pull off a monster of a game. Beat Italy - that's some serious stuff there. Their goal was pure soccer - and their defense held out. They got some help from the woodwork (but who doesn't now and then?).

There's a lot of talk about how this win keeps the US "mathematically alive," but we all know that mathematically alive = dead.

Here's the group:

The remaining matches are
Brazil v. Italy
And
US v Egypt

So here's the scenario that keeps us mathematically alive:
We beat Egypt like a red headed stepchild and Brazil crushes Italy.

Our best finish leaves us with three points, which would have to beat Egypt’s three or Italy’s three. Italy’s got a differential of +1 and Egypt’s is 0.

That doesn’t sound insurmountable until you realize that our differential is -5.
Those two BS red cards start to loom kind of large now, don’t they?
The bare minimum of the required victories shifts our GD to -4, Italy’s to 0 and Egypt’s to -1.

So, sure, Brazil could beat Italy by three goals, dropping them to -2, and we could crush Egypt by three goals, boosting us to -2. This would leave us tied on points, but (assuming Italy scored no goals at all) we’d be ahead on total goals scored.

But we know that’s never gonna happen.

Italy will come out with a vengeance against Brazil – so unless Italy is red carded to death, there will be no blow out – and there’s no good odds that we’ll beat Egypt.

Sure, Egypt’s due for a fail, and the US is desperate to prove they don’t suck – but I don’t see us getting three goals past that defense.

I’ll root for the US, but if there’s a choice between Italy and Egypt – no way I’m pulling for the Azzurri.