Team USA was, for all intents and purposes, on its way out of South Africa's Confederations Cup as of three hours ago. It had basically slept through matches with Brazil and Italy, sporting an 0-2 record and a 6-1 goal differential. Italy and Egypt, meanwhile, were both at 1-1 with differentials of 3-2 and 4-4, respectively. It would have taken a miracle for the U.S. to advance.
Something like, say ... the United States beating Egypt 3-0 and Brazil beating Italy by the same score.
And lo, the Azzurri did fall to Brazil by that exact margin; in a concurrent match, the
USMNT took it to Egypt, scoring the semifinals-clinching goal on a Clint Dempsey header in the 71st minute.
There still were flaws in the Americans' game: Egypt put shots on goal with the same relative ease that Italy did in the previous match, for example. And it's fair to wonder just where Jozy Altidore's head is at times. But to their credit, they accomplished what they needed to do to be in position to advance; incredibly, the Brazilians did the rest.
So now it's onto the semis against mighty Spain. which rolled through Group A without allowing a single goal. It would not be presumptuous to think Spain will beat the USMNT. They'd win even if the referees allowed the Americans to have guns.
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
6 comments
Comments
Hey, come on!! Egypt is ranked 40th in the world and the USA is 14th. Yea, they needed some help to advance (like any other sports tournament that uses goals for and against as the criteria for advancement)but why is everyone so stunned here? Great job USA.
by RollingStone on Jun 22, 2009 11:40 AM EDT reply actions
US is 14th because we beat up on terrible teams in our region. Egypt scored 3 goals against brazil while we barely had 3 shots. Egypt beat italy 1 – 0 while we lost 3 -1. So these teams are not that far apart. And if you knew anything about soccer you would know that its hard to beat anyone 3 – 0. Then for world class Italy to get beat 3 – 0 at the same time is amazing. The odds are extremely small, so yes it is stunning
by colecoalition17 on Jun 22, 2009 12:08 PM EDT reply actions
Fifa rankings are a joke, we were playing like crap and Egypt’s results show them to be the best African team (two straight African cup of nation wins), thats why this is such a big deal. Especially the way Egypt played against Brazil and Italy compared to how we did.This is the most important result the US has since 02 vs Portugal.
by Theonefish on Jun 22, 2009 7:05 PM EDT reply actions
Q) How many dishwashers are on Cape Cod?
A) a Brazillion
by L'etat, c'est moi on Jun 23, 2009 2:38 AM EDT reply actions
They’d win even if the referees allowed the Americans to have guns.
I would consider that a fairly crude remark even by sporting standards.
Then there is the delicious irony of your mistaken presumption.
Perhaps you should stick to what you are good at, like, perhaps, making adolescent remarks on other blogs about "probing balls."
by guardian of the galaxy on Jun 24, 2009 11:08 PM EDT reply actions
I’m with guardian… awaiting retraction.
by chznarles on Jun 25, 2009 5:43 PM EDT reply actions
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