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Say what you will about stats, but I assume you can trust the odds makers in soccer as much as in any other sport. Here's one site that shows the odds of the U.S. winning at +190 (or almost 2-1) while Ghana is +125 (5-4) and Italy is even money to beat the Czechs: www.online-gambling-insider.com/
Both the Czechs and the Ghanaians will be without their two top strikers. The U.S. will be missing Masteroni and Pope, but I don't they're as critical loses, although Masteroni did have a great first half against Italy.
And I'm shocked by this quote from Pavel Nedved:
"We do not have the points, we play against the strongest opponent in the group, we have lost two more players. Now a miracle must happen.
"I do not think our chances are big. We have got into a situation where we have to win promotion against the strongest team."
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=371798&cc=3888
That's loser talk! I don't think I've ever heard such a negative comment from a superstar before a game.
Now if Arena will just turn Eddie Johnson loose for 90 minutes in a 4-4-2, hopefully we'll see the explosive U.S. attack from 2002.
