USA 2-Spain 0

[Juan]

Holy shit! The US Men's Soccer team beat Spain today to go on to the Finals of the Confederations Cup! This is a huge deal as Spain was currently ranked #1. They should actually skip the World Cup next year and crown the US champions right now.

[Steve James]

Yeah, it was amazing. The only regret is that it didn't happen in the WC. They were playing their asses off. Their only problem has been that they've been getting careless red cards.
Poor Italy really screwed itself big time. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see if they get a second shot at Brazil.

[Juan]

I don't know. I think I'd rather face S. Africa even tho they are at home and playing well.

[Steve James]

Yeah, actually, Brazil is my favorite soccer team, always has been. Otoh, I gotta root for the home team. From that perspective, though, the US has already won a silver medal in world competition. If they play SA and win, it'll be an amazing result. If they lose, the result will still be amazing. But, if they beat Brazil to win, that'll prove a much bigger point. In their first game against them, the US blew it with penalties. Still, most people I've spoken to said that the US played super even with 10 men on. So, for me, I'd love to see a Brazil game more ... even if only to watch them play.

[Peacedog]

xxxxxxxxxx

[emre]

This is a cup nobody gives a crap about. European teams don't take these games seriously. Don't expect Spain vs US in the world cup to be the same kind of game.

[Mut]

The U.S. must have improved a bit, I saw the first 1/2 hour against Brazil in the group phase and they where worse than terrible. Great that they have managed this result. While the football 'superpowers' don't put to much into the confederations cup they still don't want to lose to teams like the U.S. either

[Steve James]

Actually, the US scored first against Brazil. As far as the importance of the FIFA cup, nope it's not the WC, or even the Americas Cup. But, as far as the game, well, no national team has beaten Spain for the last 3 years since the WC, let alone shut them out to win by 2 goals. It's true that the US is super lucky. They shouldn't have made it to the semis, but they did it by beating a good Egypt team by 3 goals. And, they definitely should not have gotten the second goal against Spain; that was luck, but it was created by the hustle. Besides, the beauty of the game is that anything can happen.

US soccer is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Few foreign players will come here to play except for the money. Otoh, our home grown players will have to play for the big European teams in order to get the needed competition. MLS isn't the same. Soccer is actually very popular, but there's just not the frenzy that exists other places.

[Mut]

Sorry Steve, but the USA lost 3 nil to Brazil in their group game, it was 2 nil within the first 25 minutes and the states was playing pathetically. While the USA beat Egypt 3 nil there are reports that the Egyptians where busy with prostitutes the night before the game, if this is so they fully deservred to lose. However with regards to the Spain game the States deserves all the credit for defeating a team in such hot form.

[Steve James]

Yep, you're right, I was thinking of the Italy game. The US sucked against Brazil. Still, that's why I want them to play.

[emre]

It's the nature of soccer, underdogs always have a chance if they play a defensive counter-attack game, which is what the US always does. If a counter-attack team gets lucky and scores one goal, then they become even stronger because they can turtle even harder and the other team has to take even greater defensive risks, opening themselves up for more counter attacks.

[Bär]

I always chalk up the US's wins to the superior team's underestimation.

[Steve James]

I always chalk up the US's wins to the superior team's underestimation.

Yeah, but the US players also had low expectations. There's no reason for it, actually. The same thing happened in basketball and hockey. Everyone expected the US team --with all the Dream players-- to roll over all the other world and Olympic teams. Then, a dream team lost ... they were outplayed by teams from South Am. and Europe. Soon, NBA teams were recruiting players from Argentina, Spain, France and Yugoslavia. This soccer win for the US was, imo, like that. It will (hopefully) inspire the players to think that they actually can play soccer at a world class level. And, there is absolutely no reason why they can not.

Maybe an even better example is cycling and Lance. I was a competitive cyclist and I remember that no one thought that Americans would ever be able to even compete with the Europeans. Then came Greg Lemond ... who got screwed by his team and later got shot in the ass by a relative. Still, he won the TDF twice. They said it was a fluke, until this guy named Armstrong came along.

So, I think that people do better overall when they ignore the expectations of others and expect the most from themselves. Or, as one old man used to say, "Never let someone else's opinion of you control your opinion of yourself."

[yusuf]

well done, it's a real achievement...

we are so glad you won and can now contribute more talent onto the international scene...