Tomorrow morning, in the tenth game of the World Cup and the first one that actually matters :), the United States plays the Czech Republic.

I kid, but it actually is a very important game for Team USA, considering the Czechs, at #2 in the world, are the highest-ranked team in Group E. (America is #5 — and widely considered overrated. Italy is #13, and Ghana is #48.) A tie would, it seems to me, be an excellent result for Team USA under the circumstances. A win, and the Americans would be sitting pretty, looking golden for an appearance in the second round. A loss, and their backs would be pretty much against the wall heading into the game against Italy on Saturday — which, incidentally, BrendanLoy.com World Cup Correspondent Nick Surmacz just found out he’ll be attending!

Anyway, ESPN has more on tomorrow’s game here and here. The latter article declares, “In many respects, the challenge couldn’t be more daunting, and a victory would be perhaps the Americans’ most impressive result ever in a World Cup.”

Game time is 9:00 AM MST (noon EDT) on ESPN2. I guess this means I need to find some work that I can plausibly do in the attorney lounge. :)

P.S. I should invite Arash over! Surely he could fit an attorney lounge into his World Cup Pub Blog…

P.P.S. The USA-Czech game will be liveblogged here.

P.P.P.S. There’s something that bugs me about the World Cup, and it’s not nil-nil draws or bright yellow jerseys or dark stadium shadows. It’s the way ties in the group standings are broken. According to this article, in a two-way tie, the head-to-head result is the third tiebreaker, after “highest goal difference” and “most goals for.” How does that make any sense?! Consider, for example, the following scenario:

Italy beats Ghana, 3-0
USA beats CZE, 2-1
Italy beats USA, 1-0
CZE ties Ghana, 2-2
CZE beats Italy, 1-0
USA ties Ghana, 1-1

Admittedly, that particular set of results is fairly unlikely, but that doesn’t really matter — I’m trying to make a point here. So, in my scenario, Italy wins Group E with a 2-1-0 record. The United States and the Czech Republic finish tied at 1-1-1. Ghana is last at 0-1-2.

So, how do you break the tie between the USA and the Czechs, and determine who gets the second and final spot in the next round? The logical answer would be, “America beat the Czechs head-to-head, so America gets it.” But under the World Cup rules, as I understand them, you’d look first at “highest goal difference.” USA won by 1, lost by 1, and had a tie; the Czechs lost by 1, had a tie, and won by 1. So, no difference there. Next, you look at “most goals for.” USA scored 2, 0 and 1, so that’s 3 goals total. The Czechs scored 1, 2 and 1, for 4 goals total. So the Czechs, in this scenario, would win the tiebreaker — the essential difference being that the Americans tied Ghana 1-1, whereas the Czechs tied Ghana 2-2. How the heck is that fair? Wouldn’t it make about 5,000 times more sense to give the tiebreaker to the team that won the head-to-head matchup between the tied teams?!?