Assunto: US Senior National Team

Great job! Keep it up.

We had a tough opening loss at the WC to Poland, 32-28, after being tied with them at halftime. Poland were just too much for us this time. Now it's on to Brazil, a team with great goaltending. However, I think we have a real chance against them. We shall see!

Good luck against Brazil!

Things have unfortunately not proceeded at all as I would have hoped. We now desperately need to win our final two games, starting today against the Netherlands! The good news, I suppose, is that we lost two eminently winnable games, and stayed close in the other (Poland). Or that's discouraging news, either way. At least it means we're not totally outclassed in terms of talent.

So good news! We overcame a 14-12 halftime deficit against the Netherlands to win 31-26. The final go-ahead goal was scored by David Allen with about 13 minutes to play and we never looked back.

We are currently sitting in the 4th and final qualifying position for the round of 16. However, everything rides on what happens today. We match up against Croatia, France vs. Poland, and Brazil vs. Netherlands.

Because Poland, Croatia, and Brazil are tied at six points and are very close in GD, it is unlikely any of them will "take it easy" on their opponents (unless they don't care about position--each of them has already clinched participation in the final 16). Croatia is a tough, tough matchup for us, and it would take an upset to win.

The good news is that it would also take an upset for either of the other two to win. If none of us achieves an upset, then it all comes down to goal differential. We are tied with France and ahead of Netherlands by 4. Basically, if we all lose, if we lose by fewer than France and by no worse than 3 more than the Netherlands, we will move on. If we lose, and one of France or Netherlands wins, it's over for us. If we win, and the others lose, we move on. If we win, and one or both of France and Netherlands win, we must beat Croatia by as much or more than France defeats Poland, and Netherlands must not win by a spread larger than three more than ours.

Whew. Here we go.

It seems that each of the past two seasons I have made a crucial mistake (a different one, but still). This time, we built a sizeable lead at halftime. However, I had forgotten to check the intensity level settings. Earlier, to conserve energy, if we trailed or led by a sufficient amount, I went down to normal. So I forgot about that, we went down to normal, and blew a six-goal lead to Croatia. Had we won, we'd be moving on. I'm sorry, guys. The little things are getting me.