Sometime the other team makes one more play than you do and that is what happened today. Ghana was not extremely impressive but they were fresher in the extra time and a very good goal scorer turned what seemed to be a harmless long ball into a volley winner. For the first time in the tournament the U.S. could not find the equalizer.
Regular time was a tale of two halves. Ghana was better in the first half while the U.S. had the advantage in the second half. Extra time went to Ghana and that along with another early goal ended the U.S. effort.
Lots of things went against the U.S. effort today. From the play of the starting lineup that forced two subs before the 46th minute, to unlucky bounces, to simply not having the energy in the extra time.
It was tough to watch a team who had found the extra energy to come up with a goal under pressure reach down and not have it. It was bound to happen. Heck, some experts even predicted it.
Trying to step back and look at the big picture this is what most predicted. A round of 16 appearance and then go from there but the circumstances make it tough to swallow for fans and I am sure the players.
I will be interested to see how their performance is viewed. Is it a case of meeting expectations? Is it a case of failing to take advantage of what most have called an easy knockout stage set up?
Personally, they exceeded my expectations in their play and met my expectations for progress in the tournament. Some of the new fans will scoff at someone considering their performance a positive but that will happen. Most have not been with this team for four years nor do they have a full grasp of U.S. soccer history. This is a step in the right direction.
Hopefully the new fans stay with the team and keep watching soccer as a whole. If not and they find their performance as a negative, well thanks for watching and feel free to slink away but you are welcome to jump back on the bandwagon in the future. I say that because I think the future for this team is bright.
Writing this minutes after the match I am reminding myself that before this tournament I thought this was a building tournament. With the youth on the team and what is sure to be familiar faces for the next world cup cycle I really thought that 2014 would be the tournament for the U.S. to make a run.
They put themselves in that position this year. I think that speaks to their talent, skill, and for all his critics, their coaching.
We will have a lot of time to analyze this match and what went right or wrong so I will not do that here. However, I do want to point to why I am optimistic for the future. Think about the players on this team, their age, and the stage of their careers they are in.
2014 will see Landon Donovan in his fourth world cup. Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, and Oguchi Onyewu will be in their third. Jozy Altidore, Maurice Edu, Stuart Holden, Jose Torres, Bennie Feilhaber, Jonathan Bornstein, Michael Bradley, Robbie Findley, and Brad Guzan will be 28 or younger in 2014. Add in guys like Alejandro Bedoya and Charlie Davies who are 23 and younger and Jermaine Jones, one of the top center midfielders in Germany, will be available and would have started next to Bradley in this tournament if he was not injured.
This team is not long in the tooth and the young talent will be mature and presumably in their prime. Guys like Tim Ream, Ike Opara, Sebastian Leglett, Charles Renken, Luis Gil, and Joseph Gyau are young guys who are a good bet to play a role for the U.S.
I will not hang my head and neither should any fan. Be proud of your team and how they represented our nation. They did well and in the end they came up a little short. That is sports, it happens and that's okay.
Now the USSF needs to take a few days, dust themselves off, and start working toward 2014. They need to decide if Bradley is the man for the next fours years. If he is not or he decides to step down they need to decide if they want to reel in a big fish like Jurgen Klinesmann are they willing to give him control of the development and youth system.
Preparations start now and hopefully we see an excited team and fan base in New York on August 14 against Brazil in the first international friendly of the 2014 cycle.
What is your take? Proud or disappointed? Is this what you expected? Is it too soon to know?
No comments:
Post a Comment