I know I've subjected you to my whiny, sour critique of American soccer culture. But have to say -- this team is winning me over. All three American games have up-and-down, rip-roaring affairs that came down to injury time with the result still undetermined. The last two have featured dramatic, memorable late-match American goals. And all of them have highlighted team USA's extraordinarily entertaining package of strengths and weaknesses -- powerful, athletic goalkeeping; speedy, stylish wingers (Donovan and Dempsey); a magnetic striker (Altidore--see his cross above) who flubs some chances but creates just as many; a gratifyingly aggressive tactical mentality (I loved Bradley's extra-striker subs in the 80th minute of the past two games); and, of course, the ever-present possibility of a defensive blunders. They're pretty damn likeable -- much more so than even our quarterfinal-reaching team in 2002. Let's hear it for American football!
If you haven't figured it out already, here are the tournament-wide repercussions from today's Group C results: the USA is slotted into the 1C spot, firmly settled within the soft corner of the draw. Unless Germany blows it today against Ghana -- and there's an unfavorable result in the Serbia-Australia game -- the Americans will have to contend only with Uruguay, South Korea, and one of the lesser Group D teams. Now Uruguay has looked very strong thus far, and I've been afraid of Serbia all tournament long, but still -- this is extremely promising. There's no one among that foursome that the Americans can't beat if they play their best match.
The same can't be said for England. The Three Lions are likely bound for a rival-studded quadrant with Germany, Argentina, and Mexico. The Lampard-Gerrard-Rooney group looked somewhat less arthropodic today agains Slovenia, but they'll need to step things up considerably if they want to make any noise in that inhospitable environment.
If you haven't figured it out already, here are the tournament-wide repercussions from today's Group C results: the USA is slotted into the 1C spot, firmly settled within the soft corner of the draw. Unless Germany blows it today against Ghana -- and there's an unfavorable result in the Serbia-Australia game -- the Americans will have to contend only with Uruguay, South Korea, and one of the lesser Group D teams. Now Uruguay has looked very strong thus far, and I've been afraid of Serbia all tournament long, but still -- this is extremely promising. There's no one among that foursome that the Americans can't beat if they play their best match.
The same can't be said for England. The Three Lions are likely bound for a rival-studded quadrant with Germany, Argentina, and Mexico. The Lampard-Gerrard-Rooney group looked somewhat less arthropodic today agains Slovenia, but they'll need to step things up considerably if they want to make any noise in that inhospitable environment.