Scoreline - June 26, 2010
USA: 1
Donovan 62' pk
Ghana: 2
Boateng 5'; Gyan 93'
So it's over.
Another two-year campaign brought to a halt (again) by the land of the warrior kings. This time, there was no bogus penalty or missed call. Just a Ghanaian team who managed to be brilliant precisely when we at our worst.
Were this like prior years, this would be where I would lament the lot of US soccer. Say something about how this nation would ignore its team's ascent - tuning in only immediately prior to their fall.
But that's not what happened this time. Yeah, we got some bad calls, but we won our group - in spectacular (if only by the skin of our teeth) fashion. Only 16 teams in the world got to where we did
- and unlike every other World Cup we've been in, the US was actually paying attention.
Here are US fans around the world, watching Donovan put in the winning goal against Algeria:
How rock-hard awesome is that?
American soccer fans watching their team win - and going ape. That is the greatest World Cup highlight for me. And it has been a long time coming.
There will time to second guess the decision to start Onyewu or Clark - or to not start Feilhaber - but US soccer fans can go away from a tournament knowing they were not robbed - and they can expect to return with a stronger team.
1 comment:
Part of it is the fact that the coverage is wall to wall (ESPN family of networks, ABC, ESPN3 online, and ESPN mobile.) Each World Cup brings in more people to see the National team. I only hope that they can solve their issues on the backline and up front in time for the next one in Brazil.
However, I agree. It is AWESOME to see this country get into soccer.
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