…Landon Donovan saves US Soccer by scoring against Algeria giving the Americans a 1-0 victory, their 7th overall in the World Cup all-time. In the process, the US wins Group C with 5 points, which is only the second time that they’ve won a group in World Cup history, the first being at the initial World Cup in 1930. What an amazing morning.
Out of these 7 wins, I distinctly remember all four that have happened in my lifetime:
In 1994, we defeated Columbia 2-1 our home soil helped in part by the Colombians scoring an own goal and made it through to the second round (where we lost to eventual champion Brazil).
In 2002, we gloriously upset Portugal 3-1 during group play and then surprised (though it was not a surprise to us) Mexico with a solid 2-0 victory in the second round to advance to the quarterfinals (where we gave a valiant effort and lost to Germany).
Today’s victory, which came in the most miraculous of circumstances, by a player I said in 2002 would be the future of US Soccer, is the best I’ve seen yet (though the thrilling super late night Portugal upset was ridiculously fun). My entire office was watching (and enjoying the free breakfast we won from the US/England 1-1 draw) by streaming the game through ESPN3 on a laptop and then hooking said laptop into a huge plasma TV. This is the second significant and emotional patriotic event that I’ve watched at work with colleagues – the other being Obama’s inauguration – and I’ve enjoyed both immensely. There was a large crowd today hanging on every near miss and while the first half was promising, the second half was desperate and as the near misses mounted, more and more dread crept into the room. I thought that the better chance of advancing laid at the feet of the Slovenians who in tying England would allow the US to go through but luckily that didn’t need to happen. In injury time, at the plus one of four mark, everyone just erupted when Donovan put a ricochet in the back of the net. I was unable at first to enjoy, too paranoid that this too would be improbably called back but no, there was no goal stealing by the refs this time, this was a real goal, and a real cathartic release as the US lived up to its potential and I ran around giving high fives to the true footie fanatics there, the ones who knew like me how much this meant.
It’s more than just going through to the second round. When I say that Donovan saved the sport in this country, I’m not kidding. The US had to win this match today or else soccer would have been looked down upon for not only another four years but possibly decades if not even longer. It would have lost its legitimacy.
A good friend of mine who loves all domestic sports (i.e. baseball, football and basketball), loves the Olympics (so he doesn’t dislike global competition) and most importantly loves hockey (soccer’s second cousin) couldn’t believe that the US didn’t beat Slovenia and couldn’t believe that the go-ahead goal was disallowed. Between that call and the endless flopping and diving that he saw during the US’s and other team’s matches, he was telling me how he just didn’t get soccer, that it was more theatre than sport and how while he would like to care more, the nonsense annoys him and thus he is a true once every four years fan. This Landon Donovan goal, and the never say die attitude of the US squad that allowed it to happen (cue Tim Howard’s amazing throw that started the 4 on 2 counterattack), is the greatest example of what our national style looks like and how soccer will win over people like my friend. We like winners in America and the US Team winning when it can and should is a welcome change to the previous 20 years worth of WC history.
As an aside, I’ve been reading tons of articles and watching the goal over and over again. I can’t wait to replicate Landon’s superman dive on a slip and slide soon. Out of all the things I’ve read so far, nothing was as much fun as this ESPN “Off the Ball” blog’s tremendously good post on how it’s time to start believing.
As another aside, a sign that we are becoming a real soccer nation is that we finally have an good yet slightly cheesy unofficial World Cup anthem of our own, like say England’s Vindaloo. Weezer’s “Represent” is a fantastic footie anthem and a welcome surprise – it turns out River Como is a huge footie fanatic and he made sure he caught the US / England match while at Bonnaroo. The song is immediately going on my running mix. It’s also below – crank up the speakers and get ready for Saturday when we play Ghana. They beat us 2-1 in 2006 but if we beat them this time around, which is entirely possible, then we play either Uruguay or South Korea in the quarterfinals. To dream of greatness, yet another sign of becoming a real footie nation. Enjoy the song.