Oh So Close

Ok, so the USA men didn’t win the FIFA Confederations Cup and shock the world today. But I think its safe to say they did shock the world by not getting blown out by Brazil. Everyone who knows anything about soccer predicted the Boys to get beat by at least three, some were even saying four, goals. And everyone agreed we’d be lucky to score one.

But score one we did. About ten minutes into the game, actually. A cross to Clint (finally proving why he’s my favorite American player ever) Dempsey found its way into the net and the soccer world sat up and took notice, the Americans had scored first. All who were watching knew, at that instant, that there would be no rout.

Now, I’m not much of a Landon Donovan fan (I kinda hate him a little bit), but the guy played a great game. He controlled the ball like never before, he was actually a leader on the field, and his goal was a thing of beauty. Oh, yeah, his goal. He scored the second goal for the US. The one that put the yanks ahead 2-nil at halftime. Yeah, two to zero at halftime.

Hello world, we’re the Americans, and we came to play.

And play they did. Like champions. I know, I know, the Brazilians came back and scored three to win the game and the trophy, but at this point that’s just a detail. We stood up to wave after wave of Brazilian attack. The South American champs took 24 total shots, 11 on goal, and that doesn’t include all of the attacks that were snuffed out by our stellar back line. But we didn’t just survive the attacks, we gave them our own. We took the game to their half and made them endure our attacks. We fought and scratched and played hard on both ends of the field for a full 90 minutes. Our forwards played great, our midfielders held it down, the back four was like a wall, and Tim Howard proved why he is a world-class keeper and the backbone of our National Team. Face it: Timmy is a beast.

We didn’t lose this game because we gave up, it wasn’t due to dumb mistakes, it wasn’t because of poor execution – no, we got beat because the Brazilians are a better team. And for US Soccer, that is a victory. We’ve finally reached the place as a soccer playing country where we can compete respectfully on the world stage and play with the best of the best. We matched them step for step, never getting out run, never getting caught out of position and never being caught looking lost. The first Brazilian goal was a great goal, no question. The second was luck – the ball bouncing around in front of the goal and getting past the keeper – and that happens to anyone. The third, the toughest to swallow, was on a corner that went over Dempsey and was headed in. None of those were embarassing, none were due to defensive breakdowns, and not once did we give them a gift (Timmy actually took a point away from them by acting like the ball had never crossed the line, when clearly it had – great acting on his part and it worked). So, hold your head high, Clint. We got beat, fair and square and that is something to be proud of.

Yes, it sucks to lose, it sucks to give away a two goal halftime lead, grasping defeat from the jaws of victory. I think we can all agree – it would have felt much better to win this game. But we have to go away with positives, and there is one glaring positive here: The United States has just embarrassed Spain and went blow-for-blow with Brazil on a soccer field. Both are things that many thought would never happen. Certainly not this soon, and not with as much force. I think its safe to say: the soccer world won’t look past the United States anymore.

[IMGs via Daylife]