Can Giuseppe Rossi’s US Citizenship be Revoked?
By USA 1 – 3 Italy
I thought the USA held up well against an admittedly aging Italian side,
for the first 55 minutes or so until they predictably tired while a man down. The red card against Clark wasn’t, but both my Welsh lodger and I felt that Chiellini should have been sent off for cynically bringing Altidore down in the box. Indeed, it was a bad day for the Refs’ Union, as we also felt the offsides call against the Italians was 50/50 at best, and we’d have likely waved play on.
That call saved Bornstein some embarrassment on the own goal. What was he thinking? I thought Donovan had one of his better matches against top tier competition, Spector looked good at the back, Bradley had a decent, at times even creative match in midfield, but Giuseppe Rossi’s first goal of the match for Italy was worth the price of admission. Compared to the Americans’ typical flailing in front of goal (I’m thinking of you, Bradley and Altidore) that Rossi strike was sublime.
I know that there is some anger directed at the New Jersey-born Rossi for choosing to play for Italy over the United States, and I did find his decision unfortunate. But seriously, consider the following: 1) he moved to Parma and joined their youth set-up at 14. 2) he represented Italy at U-16, 17, 18, and U-21. 3) who would begrudge him the opportunity to represent Italy over the US? 4) the US benefits from such decisions more often than not. Oh, and at least his father, and I’m pretty sure both his parents are Italian by birth. So on the merits it’s a tossup at best, and he chose the historically more successful side.
Of course, the British media persisted in bringing up his two pointless years with Manchester United, ignoring his New Jersey roots.
