To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Expected

The US men's national soccer team has been given a lot. We have high-class facilities, a (semi)competitive league to play in, and if they're not about that, some European clubs have decided to take a chance on some of our players and allowed them to play for them, thus improving their game (Landon Donovan). Since much has been given to this team, they have a huge country's worth of expectation for this World Cup. After our last two first-round games, where we would give up goals before the quarter hour and have to employ a Herculean effort in order to pull out a tie, the US was not living up to their expectations. This morning's game was their last chance to prove that they were more than a disappointment, that they could keep it together and wait until, say, the 40th minute to concede a goal. By the time their game against Algeria was over, it seemed as if the US had skyrocketed past their expectations and gave the game that America knew was inside of them.

Now, I didn't watch the whole game live (which is why I didn't do I diary of the game today). Instead, I had to get ready to go to the Foxy. By the time I left my place to go to work, it was five minutes to half time. Luckily, traffic wasn't awful and I managed to hit several green lights in a row to get me to work at around 8:30. I briskly walked to the office and immediately turned the TV on next to my computer. Producer Matt wasn't there yet (which was weird considering he gets to work around 6am) so I had some free time to devote my undivided attention to the red, white and blue.

The game was in the 72nd minute, still dead locked at 0-0. At this point, I didn't know about Dempsey's shot hitting the post or the other disallowed goal or the fact that we were dominating this game but couldn't find the back of the net (sound familiar, SPAIN?). Time was weaseling, and if we didn't find a way to win this game, we would fail to move on to the next round. This failure would bring about immense disappointment to the team that was deemed our "best World Cup team ever." After a couple more missed chances and a missed red card by the referee (how could he not see the Algerian cold-cock Dempsey in the mouth?) and we were in stoppage time. All was lost. If we couldn't score in 90 minutes, how were we going to in the last four? But we hadn't played the 91st minute yet. When Howard caught the shot by the Algerian forward and hurled it down the field for a quick counter, I thought that this might be our best shot at a goal. Just a mere 11 seconds later, Donovan put the loose ball away into the goal.

No words that I ever write in this blog would do justice to the way I was feeling after the ball crossed the goal line. Yeah, I was beyond elated, but it also felt like I had been punched in the stomach and suddenly it became hard to catch my breath from all the excitement. I was bouncing in my desk chair and throwing my arms in the air. That was when our office manager step out of the conference room and was staring at me. All I had to say was "We scored," and my off-kilter behavior was immediately forgiven. In fact, she said, "Oh no, I can't believe I missed it." My heart rate was through the roof, and we still had four minutes of stoppage time. Algeria had one quality chance, but a foul in the box negated it. Then their captain got sent off because of a double caution. Somehow I wasn't phased by that. I was still on a high from the goal. Then the referee blew the final whistle and the US rushed the field in celebration. I almost cried a little bit. And it wasn't enough that this last-minute goal advanced us into the Round of 16, but it catapulted us to the top of the group, landing us into a somewhat more favorable quadrant of the World Cup bracket. It was just all too much.

It took me about two hours for my heart rate to return to normal, but I was jacked up for the rest of my work day. Then I got to thinking (which can be dangerous). These past few group games alone could bring about so much good for soccer in the United States. Yes, people were excited about a US-England showdown of the ages, but it wasn't until we were totally jobbed the referee-who-should-not-be-named that an entire nation of soccer fans and non-fans alike came together to support their team. Now, after this game where we pulled victory out of the jaws of a tie (and major disappointment), more people might be able to take soccer more seriously as a nation's sport. There is nothing more American than to pony up all your support for a team that has been screwed by an official and can somehow give out a big "eff you" by overcoming an adversity.

Now it's on to the knock-out stages, where it really REALLY counts. Where the size of your ball sack has to be at least three times bigger than it was in the group stage. Come Saturday morning, the US can either ride this success and exceed the expectation that has been placed upon them, or they won't rise to the occasion. Either way, people can't be disappointed. We can at least say that we are one of the best 16 teams in the world. That at least overcomes the expectations I had placed on this team.

One final note: what was up with that tennis match today? During the Germany game, Producer Matt and I were keeping track of this match over at Wimbledon. It was in the fifth set and the players had already played for five hours and had to postpone their game due to darkness. That's right...this match started yesterday! Matt and I started following when they tied at 21 games. We kept following until they got to 59 games...a piece. Theses guys played 118 games before they had to postpone the game again due to darkness. The game is easily ten hours long by now, and these nobody players have so many records that have no chance at all of being broken. I just hope that the game doesn't end before I get to Foxy tomorrow, because I want to be watching that!