At this point, I am sure that is what U.S. Soccer coach Bruch Arena is hoping for, but I tend to think that this might be a good time to see other coaches, and he is welcome to see other teams. No hard feelings.

Mabye its not so much that the U.S. only registered a single point, or that they only scored one goal. To me its more of a question of wouldn’t a good coach have figured out a way to juggle the lineup, change stragies, or basically do anyting to produce a better result?

Especially when you consider that World Cup success has a direct correlation with the popularity of soccer as a sport in America, U.S. Soccer would be foolish not to make a coaching change, if nothing else, it might help garner some positive headlines.

And with their coach in the forefront, the U.S. team looks like they are going to complain about the officiating in their last two games and pretend that they were cheated. From what I saw the officiating was not world class, but neither was the play of the team. All of it reminds me all so well of the most recent Super Bowl, and the NBA finals that just ended.

In both matchups, the losing team complained of poor officiating, and I tend to agree (mainly with the Seahawks). But where I think their argument weakens is the fact that all three squads (Seahawks, Mavericks, and U.S. Soccer) could still have easily won had they just played better. So that is pretty much how I classify this World Cup for the Americans: the officiating was bad but they still had the opportunity to play great soccer and win the games. The ref may have blown the call, but the U.S. team needed to win to advance, not tie. So a 2-1 loss should have been a 1-1 tie, and still would have resulted in a last-place finish. A bit like crying over spilled milk.

• Arena and U.S. team critical of referee for pentaly kick (AP)