I don't know if you have watched the World Cup at all this year, but the USA was reasonably well-represented and gave a much better showing than any other country expected. Many people though have mentioned how sad it is that a world super power (or THE world super power) such as ourselves can't win a damn soccer game. I get you, guy that still pops his collar, but many factors I saw in this year's cup inspired me anyways.
First off, about how it's called soccer... I don't understand why we still call it soccer, probably for the same reason we still use the English system rather than metric, but who really gives a damn? Countries can mock us for using a different name than them, but they still flock to our country to get paid playing in the professional league, which, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure is called Major League SOCCER. I won't nit-pick, whatever. But, being the only one calling an international game something different, we become the brunt of a lot of jokes. Also, kinda makes me feel like we'd get picked last.
If that's not enough, we got set against England, who, to my knowledge is wicked better than us (Wayne Rooney, anyone?). We tied them, and that embarrassed the bloody hell out of them. I'll explain why, ties into the we-still-call-it-soccer thing.
Here we are, amateurs at this game, barely making the cut, like the Wild Card team in a [real] football league. A soccer, er, football power country, and we tie them. The way they see it, we don't even know the real name. We don't even like the game, as a country. America's past-time is baseball, not soccer, and only recently has it picked up speed commercially. So we're outmatched in a game most American's have no idea about, more than don't touch the ball with your hands (damn you, Thierry Henry) and we straight up drew the game. Suck on that you London turd. America: 1, England: (Also 1, but like, a little less). Think about if the NY Yankees played some slack-a Division 2 college and took it into extra innings. Epic.
Another factor is, well, we played well. If we got any one of the 4 completely outrageously poor whistles back, we'd have made it at least another cut, in my opinion. I mean, Landon Donovan for once closed out a game strong. Scoring the latest ever goal in US World Cup history is grounds for me respecting him a little bit more. I'm here to say, 4 years ago I don't remember watching a single game of the World Cup, so our history as an involved country isn't something I consider myself an expert in, but even I know that's a big deal. And I did catch the shoot-out of the MLS championship, where he had an aneurysm and shanked it like Van de Velde in '99.
I mean, we really, majority-speaking, have no idea about soccer. We play little league sometimes, but that's more for wine-o parents who want their kids out of the house or just an excuse to drink on Saturday mornings while still looking supportive. "There's penalties in soccer?", "What does that mean?", "How does he be offsides?" are all ridiculous questions, and yet completely acceptable in America. Had any one of these "fans" go to Johannesburg and said stuff like that, they would've made international news, but here in America, we realize that, again, generally speaking, as a Nation, we're clueless. How many of the general American public know that the movie Fever Pitch was a remake, and the original was a soccer film? How many out of that group realize the Fever Pitch as a title works for a soccer film because a soccer field is called a pitch? Yeah, not several. So, yeah, tying England was amazing.
And then we won the group! Of course, at that point, Americans got cocky enough to believe we could beat Ghana, and the odds were pretty close numbers-wise, Ghana being favored by 2.6% or something. With odds like that, America thought, we should kill them. I mean, England was favored by way more and we tied that shizz up, what is 2.6% really? Again, this shows the naivete of America, because Ghana as a nation, is known for distance running, and America is known for sitting on the couch eating a bag of potato chips. All stereotypes aside, soccer is a marathon, and we already know Donovan's lack of closeout skill, at to that fatigue, and you have yourself a lost match. But we took it to Extra-Time, or overtime, if you're from America. That's impressive. By that point we were staggering, no oxygen left, ears ringing (actually, that's just the damn vuvzelas), but we gave it a good run.
We gained a touch more respect in a sport we don't even take that seriously.
Pretty awesome, America. Go us.
