Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
ALIVE & KICKING
After plucky tie, U.S. deserves some respect
Scott Ostler
Sunday, June 18, 2006
(06-18) 04:00 PDT Kaiserslautern, Germany -- Maybe it's time for the USA to get some of that Trinidad and Tobago-style love and admiration from the rest of the soccer world.
What, America's team and fans can't be cool and lovable?
What's the USA? Chopped liver?
Trinidad and Tobago, if you're joining the party late, was the feel-good hit of the first week of the tournament after they held powerful Sweden to a scoreless tie and battled England even for most of the match. Everybody, even neutral fans, jumped on the Soca Warriors' bandwagon.
The U.S., after Saturday's historic 1-1 finish against way-more-talented Italy, not only is now very much alive in the tournament, but has earned something you can't buy here with a barrel of Euros -- respect.
The Trinidad and Tobago kind of love probably won't come, not yet, which is too bad. The Soca Warriors had island music, we've got island music -- Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel (Manhattan Island).
Trinidad and Tobago showed endearing pluck and courage, and the U.S. team somehow managed to find that same rare stuff Saturday. If the rest of the world isn't yet ready to give it up for Uncle Sam's boys, the U.S. generated enough self respect Saturday to keep themselves warm.
And now it can be told: Even though the U.S. players put on a happy face in the days after the 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic, they now admit that they know they sucked, they were embarrassed and puzzled, they were reeling.
"There were a lot of smiles in the locker room tonight," said U.S. defender Jimmy Conrad. "We could look each other in the eye. We had four or five days where we couldn't look each other in the eye."
Landon Donovan, one of the players who went from very small to very big in five short days, said pretty much the same: "You can't fault our effort. We didn't have that Monday, but we had it today. We were in a position (Monday) to make plays, and we didn't, because guys weren't giving that extra effort. Tonight they were."
What flipped the switch? Can the U.S. duct-tape the switch in the "up" position? Nobody knows, and that's part of the fun, but Saturday's game now occupies a place very high on the list of America's Greatest (soccer) Hits.
Italy is loaded with world-class talent, a very hungry team, and is very physical, exactly the kind of team the timid U.S. didn't seem ready for. When the Americans lost their second player to a red card early in the second half and knew it would be a man down the rest of the night, 10 vs. 9, the fat lady was clearing her throat.
She never sang a note.
Goalkeeper Kasey Keller got the Man of the Match award, but veteran forward Brian McBride was the Americans' poster boy for pluck. Late in the first half he and Italy's Daniele De Rossi went up for a high ball and De Rossi threw a right elbow that sliced open a cut under McBride's left eye. World's easiest red card, although De Rossi eloquently mimed his innocence to the ref. Elbow? I was merely leaping for the ball, and the arms were flying!
The Italians are marvelous thespians, absolutely breathtaking in their range of emotion when they flop or protest their innocence.
"Are there snipers shooting those guys?" an American fan wondered in the men's room at halftime. "Do those guys live with their mothers?"
The Italians flop gorgeously. They are probably the only team that holds stretcher practice. De Rossi apologized to McBride after the game, then told the media, "I don't know what happened, I was fighting for position and I guess we bumped."
I asked McBride what the shot felt like.
"I'm fortunate that I don't have any feeling in my face in that area, from my two plastic surgeries," McBride said.
How much hardware does he have in his face?
"Four (titanium) plates here (left side), three here (right)."
Keller, whose three previous World Cup starts were losses, said Saturday's enormously pleasing result was just a matter of the boys digging down.
"You go from a man up to a man down within three minutes and you know you gotta roll up your sleeves," Keller said. "And we created chances. We didn't just sit back and kick balls out of bounds. One point (for the tie) was a victory for us. We've still got a mountain to climb, but at least it's climbable, we haven't fallen off the cliff."
That kind of pluck deserves some props from the world. The likelihood of the Americans getting it? Slim. For various reasons, some of them legit, the U.S. just isn't as lovable as Trinidad and Tobago, or, for that matter, Ghana, America's next opponent.
It's tough being an unloved underdog. U.S. coach Bruce Arena said he thought the red card on America's Pablo Mastroeni was a make-up for the red on DeRossi, and, "I think it's natural that the traditional powers (top teams) probably get a little bit more respect from the officials. It's the same in every sport. One day, the U.S. will get those calls."
First you have to go out and win a few World Cups, as have the Italians. For the U.S., the immediate challenge is to advance to the knockout round. If they do, the world will have to give them some love.
Until then, they've earned respect from where it means the most -- each other.