As an American, I was proud of the way my team fought back but was very dismayed by our first half. Shoddy defending and conceding opening goals will not be easily overcome.
I thought Donovan's goal was brilliant, one of the best of the Cup so far.
As for the ref's terrible call, what pisses me off, and what pisses a lot of Americans off is this: That FIFA just stonewalls and gives "No comment" as its response. In fact, FIFA prefers controversy because it keeps people talking after the match is over. Yes, certainly bad calls happen all the time in sports. What needs to happen though is a degree of accountability. either the ref must say, "I made a mistake" or FIFA must come out and say so. A bit of closure is what is lacking. Saying the ref had a "poor" game isn't enough.
To wit, a few weeks ago, an ump in a Major League Baseball game absolutely BLEW a call when a pitcher had a perfect game (No baserunner allowed the entire game) with 2 outs in the ninth inning. The ump called a player safe when he was clearly out, thus ruining the perfect game, of which there have only been 20 in the last 110+ years of baseball. After the game, the ump came out and said flat out that he'd blown the call and he APOLOGIZED to the player, who accepted the apology. It became so much easier to get over the blown call and everyone was able to move on, as it became a great story in its own right. The difference here is accountability.
I'm not comparing the two sports at all, since the ump came out and owned up to his mistake to the press and to the player on his own, not because Major League Baseball told him to. I for one, loathe the way MLB is run and think they are almost as bad as FIFA in how decisions get made or not made, how controversy is glossed over or never addressed and how usually reactions to problems are so slow in forming they might as well not happen at all.
I think for many Americans, we are more shocked by how the ref and FIFA took the "cone of silence" approach to this obvious bad call when just a few weeks ago we saw an ump own up to his mistake. Should FIFA and the ref do this, we'd be much more willing to just move on, still angry though we may be.
All that being said, I think the US will use it as motivation to beat Algeria and advance, though there is the likely possibility we may end up playing Germany, which, well, we'll deal with that if it happens.
As for the English, I addressed my thoughts in another thread, regarding what they must do from here forward.
This Cup is certainly getting more interesting day by day.
Take care all.
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Originally Posted by charliepanayi
streme Wheelie
