I get knocked down, but I get up again....
In an often tense yet ultimately disappointing and frustrating match, the Ghana beat the USA 2-1 yesterday. It was enough to guarantee the elimination of the USA from the World Cup, and so these players, who were for a brief moment the center of attention from a soccer starved nation, will go home today.
The frustrating part of this is that, despite what most of the world thinks, I think the FIFA rankings (which placed the US among the top 10 teams in the world) were pretty accurate. When we played well, our team was really darn good. But something about the pressure, the tension and the glare of playing on the world stage proved too much. First against the Czechs, and then against Ghana, the US team demonstrated uninspired and unimaginative play.
The first goal was completely unecessary. You never let yourself get challenged with the ball in your own third of the field. A basic rule which Reyna violated, and as a result he was summarily stripped of the ball and we went down 1-0. Reyna also went down, and had to be carried out of the game on a stretcher. He's never going to play an international match again (or so he claims). Not to belittle his career -- he's a formidable player and has been a great addition to US soccer. But during the WC he has not played up to his potential.
The US equalized on a wonderful goal, but then we immediately went down again on a dubious penalty call inside the box. A very dubious call. I'll leave it at that.
But when it comes down to it, a championship team needs to be able to pull themselves out of situations like that. The US team needed to get aggressive in the second half and score some goals, at least get a lot of shots on goal. But our passing was lackluster, and although we came tantalizingly close a couple of times (gotta love McBride), there is no escaping the ultimate conclusion that we just couldn't score.
As to the larger issue of soccer in the USA, perhaps I'll post another time on that. Suffice it to say that although we have millions of little kids playing in youth soccer leagues, all of our good athletes go to basketball, baseball, etc instead of soccer. And who can blame them? Their salary, fame, and influence extend so much farther with these other sports than soccer. We're on the right track, but it's going to be another 8 years at least before we can field a championship worthy team. But I have hope! We shall get up again.
.....you ain't never gonna keep me down.
In an often tense yet ultimately disappointing and frustrating match, the Ghana beat the USA 2-1 yesterday. It was enough to guarantee the elimination of the USA from the World Cup, and so these players, who were for a brief moment the center of attention from a soccer starved nation, will go home today.
The frustrating part of this is that, despite what most of the world thinks, I think the FIFA rankings (which placed the US among the top 10 teams in the world) were pretty accurate. When we played well, our team was really darn good. But something about the pressure, the tension and the glare of playing on the world stage proved too much. First against the Czechs, and then against Ghana, the US team demonstrated uninspired and unimaginative play.
The first goal was completely unecessary. You never let yourself get challenged with the ball in your own third of the field. A basic rule which Reyna violated, and as a result he was summarily stripped of the ball and we went down 1-0. Reyna also went down, and had to be carried out of the game on a stretcher. He's never going to play an international match again (or so he claims). Not to belittle his career -- he's a formidable player and has been a great addition to US soccer. But during the WC he has not played up to his potential.
The US equalized on a wonderful goal, but then we immediately went down again on a dubious penalty call inside the box. A very dubious call. I'll leave it at that.
But when it comes down to it, a championship team needs to be able to pull themselves out of situations like that. The US team needed to get aggressive in the second half and score some goals, at least get a lot of shots on goal. But our passing was lackluster, and although we came tantalizingly close a couple of times (gotta love McBride), there is no escaping the ultimate conclusion that we just couldn't score.
As to the larger issue of soccer in the USA, perhaps I'll post another time on that. Suffice it to say that although we have millions of little kids playing in youth soccer leagues, all of our good athletes go to basketball, baseball, etc instead of soccer. And who can blame them? Their salary, fame, and influence extend so much farther with these other sports than soccer. We're on the right track, but it's going to be another 8 years at least before we can field a championship worthy team. But I have hope! We shall get up again.
.....you ain't never gonna keep me down.
posted by slithytoves at 12:16 PM
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