I was not surprised that Ghana got the first goal but not too worried either, given our penchant for comebacks, but I was furious that it happened in the 5th minute! And on a defensive give away!!! If the US proved one thing this World Cup, it's that we SUCK at defense. Ricardo Clark straight up lost the ball. Jay Demerit defended like a cactus. And Tim Howard didn't cover the near post. WHAT THE HELL (#1)!!!
But if we were going to concede a goal, it's good that we did it so early, in order to maximize the time remaining for an equalizer. At last it came in the 62nd minute, when "Clempsey" (Clint Dempsey) got fouled in the box and Donovan kissed the penalty dangerously off the woodwork. Hooray...except that's 5/5 goals score by our midfield (and 7/7 if you count disallowed goals). If the US proved two things this World Cup, it's that we SUCK at defense AND our forwards SUCK at scoring. Where was Jozy Altidore? I know he's only 20 years old, but he's big and strong and just muscles people off of the ball. How about some goals? The closest he came to scoring was a point blank shot he smashed over the crossbar that he should have left for Donovan to put away (against Algeria, I believe). As for our other forward, we didn't have one! What was Bill Bradley (the coach) thinking starting Robbie Findley over and over and over again!? He doesn't score goals, so he's useless as a forward. And when he's trying to make a pass, he looks utterly lost, so he's worthless as a playmaker. He looked utterly lost the entire tournament! The best thing that happened for the US against Slovenia was Findley's yellow card, which kept him out of the Algeria game. Hmm, looks like US did not concede so long as Findley was off... What was wrong with Edson Buddle? He was a fighter and he could pass. That's two things he had on Findley. Or Hercules Gomez? Damn, he missed a lot of opportunities, but at least he could get himself into those positions! WHAT THE HELL (#2)!!!
Our equalizing goal gave me only a moment's respite until I saw our future flash before my eyes, Nike-"Write the Future"-commercial-style. Oh no, I said, now the US is going to slow down again and play for penalties. But Ghana will score first in extra time and we'll have to come from behind AGAIN! Unfortunately, my realization could not help the team, and that's exactly what happened. We took our foot of the gas pedal...we played like pussies.
I'm not sure of it was the coach's call or simply a loss of urgency that washed over us, but we were definitely playing for penalty kicks. WHY!? What team gains the momentum with a well-earned equalizing goal and then hands it right back to the other team? Now we're even: let's WIN. Win! ...win? Do you know what that means? Try to score a goal before the other team does! What was it with our team this World Cup? We just didn't want to win any games. We waited for England to score before we tried playing offense. We waited for Slovenia to score two goals before we tried at all. And even against Algeria, we waited for England to score, for a solidified early elimination, before we really started hammering Algeria. In fact, before England scored, we nearly conceded...and once they did score, we definitely waited for the last possible minute. WHAT THE HELL (#3)!!!
We are truly procrastinators. You can't seriously expect to do well in the World Cup if you only lead the scoreboard for 3 out of 407 minutes played!!! Why did we play defensively? Our defense isn't good enough! Our forwards can't even score when we're dominating possession--how could we expect them to score against the run of play? BAD DEFENSE + BAD FORWARDS is not a recipe for a defensive side. Who were we trying to be...Italy? Italy usually scores before they defend, not the other way around.
But let's not take credit from Ghana. Although the US underperformed, Ghana played excellently, displaying the tenacity and hunger that wins games and drives teams deep into the tournament. Their first goal was merciless; their second, more merciless.
Five minutes into the game, they showed precision shooting that had been completely absent in the group stage. Until then, Ghana had only scored on penalties. In fact, Ghana's qualification transpired more or less due to the turn of events--mere happenstance--rather than the innate drive that put the other 31 teams through. In other words, they hardly deserved their second round berth. However, given FIFA's obvious bias against the US, I was certain that Ghana would be gifted another penalty against us. Ironically, it was we who scored on a penalty.
Ghana's second goal captured perfectly the will to win. Asamoah Gyan just powered through our defense, all by himself, and buried it even more powerfully into the net, right over Tim Howard. Just watch the goal. This was a completely solo effort. The ball that he collected was a cleared out of the back, fired straight into the air by a defender who wasn't even facing forward! Bocanegra and Demerit just looked like fools as they let the ball bounce between them, let Gyan take it on his chest and stumble toward goal with it. Gyan broke through our defense, ravaged our goal, and buried our dream...because, surely, what team could deliver a SIXTH comeback goal?
Winning is for the tenacious, for the hungry. Every team that has tried to hole up--with the exception of Uruguay--is out of the tournament: North Korea, Switzerland, Italy, ... (now Portugal). Defense doesn't work. It's just improbable to count on your defense to hold up for an hour and a half against an undying onslaught. At least score first, then defend. Uruguay did that against South Korea, so when South Korea did score, they were safe, had time to buy their next goal and then defended again.
The US team was strongest when we attacked in numbers, with a sense of urgency. So why, when that was so obvious, did we not play to our strengths? Part of the reason is that we're afraid. It's fine when we're the underdogs: we play great, because we have nothing to lose. But suddenly, when the pressure is on, when the world expects something from us, when we are good enough to win, we choke. The world will never respect the US soccer team until we play like we are worth respecting. For now, we are the prime example of a mediocre team, which can easily be identified as playing up to the level of better competition and down to the level of worse. The path to the semi-final was so open to us. Everything happened perfectly to put us into the easiest quadrant. Our vengeance was laid out beautifully before us. It was time to trounce the team that had sent us home in 2006. And we failed.
That's at least four more years I--and every other US fan--have to wait before we witness that magical moment, when finally--finally!--our testicles drop as a soccer nation.
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