I’ve held off from sharing too much about the World Cup, I know a lot of people don’t care, so I don’t want to bore anyone. But WOW. I don’t know if I have enough words to describe the feeling that I went through.
If you have followed the Cup or US at all, you’ve I’m sure heard that in our last game against Slovenia we scored to go up 3-2, only to have the goal disallowed for reasons unknown (except to the ref who called the game, but ain’t talkin’). We walked away with a tie to give us 2 points in our group, but behind Slovenia who had 4 points.
Today’s game, against Algeria, really called for us to win in order to go through to the next round. If we tied and England tied in their game, then we could go through, but we really needed to win. The game started today at 9AM central time, and I was in knots. As usual the US defense looked a little suspect, and Algeria nearly took the lead in the first 15 minutes, but we held. Through the rest of the first half and into the 2nd half the score remained tied, but the US looked like the much better team and had multiple near misses. And we had a goal taken away from us again! In the first half Clint Dempsey scored, but was called offside which in replays show that he was clearly onside…
Deep into the 2nd half, I admit, I again was disheartened. I was sure that the US had missed its chance(s). We couldn’t score, we miss played the ball several time, and kept coming up short. Not only that, but England had scored in its game and had a solid 1-0 lead over Slovenia. That would mean that Slovenia and England would move on, and we would be going home. With just a couple of minutes left in the game, I was up pacing, and my was heart racing. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Another disappointing showing in the World Cup for the US.
But finally, FINALLY!, with the full 90 minutes gone and a minute into 4 minute stoppage time (the clock runs non-stop in soccer, and time is added on at the end of each half depending on injuries, substitutions, etc), the US went on a break toward the Algerian goal. Landon Donovan streaked toward the goal, passed off to the right to Jozy Altidore, who centered it to Clint Dempsey, who shot and….missed off the goal keeper.
But it bounced straight off of him to the wide open Landon Donovan who buried it into the back of the net!!! I was literally on the floor stunned by the kindness of the soccer gods. We actually won the group over England with that amazing finish.
What a relief – we truly deserved to win and move on to the next stage. We will meet the one of three teams next depending on the outcome of the next two games.
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