For those of us unfortunate enough to be brought up in a country without the love of true sports like soccer and cycling, the World Cup is an opportunity to overdose on great sport and try yet again to convince the teeming millions of American unbelievers that Futbol really is much more fun than football if you know what I mean. And while most of us were steeling ourselves against the likelihood of a jolly good whipping from our friends across the pond during the match vs England, I was pleasantly surprised to see the US soccer team not suffer total domination.
After watching that match, though, there are two questions that I have. The first is this: will the US actually get credit for their tie or will it forever be known as the win that England lost? It was pretty clear in the first 10 minutes that England was the stronger of the two teams. For the entirety of the game, they were able to fly through the American defensemen rather effortlessly. Thanks to a solid, aggressive goalkeeping performance from the US, the weakness of the US defense was somewhat less noticeable. In addition, the US offense stepped it up after they were awakened by the lightning fast attack from England that put them in a 0-1 deficit before they even had a chance to realize the game had started. However, it didn't appear that it would be enough to make the grade against England's stoic backs. Then, in what appeared to be just another meager attempt from outside of the box, a ball rolled past the English goalkeeper. Everyone who was watching felt the same way as me. HOW DID THAT JUST HAPPEN? But as I listened to the commentators blaming Green over and over again for his bumble and watched the replay I started to think. Wait, this isn't just his fault. That shot from Dempsey was hard and low and on goal. It's not like the keeper knocked a ball into the net that wasn't going to go in. Sure, he made a mistake and didn't get behind the ball enough to stop it. He probably could have stopped that ball in his sleep, but sometimes the way you win is by catching the opposition off guard which is exactly what Dempsey did. So good for him! Unfortunately, I think most people will credit this as Green's error rather than Dempsey's earnings, but the score is the score and so far the US has not had a loss in the World Cup.
The second question I have is of far more importance. Why are the US jerseys SO ugly? At first glance I thought it had some potential, but the longer I watched the harder it was for me not to imagine that the US players were just a bunch of beauty pageant contestants running around with their sashes on. Far bigger than the issue of wondering how Green let the US goal through, who let the US jersey through?
