It was all just so American. Everything about the day, about the circumstances. I woke up in a soggy campground tent, headed out with an adventure company and tangled with some West Virginia whitewater featuring Class IV and Class V
It was all just so American. Everything about the day, about the circumstances. I woke up in a soggy campground tent, headed out with an adventure company and tangled with some West Virginia whitewater featuring Class IV and Class V rapids. After the strenuous paddle, my friends and I located the campground bar, ordered a pitcher of local beer called “Miner’s Daughter” and sat down to watch the USA take on Belgium just as our familiar national anthem played over the house speakers.
Then the Americans played a prototypical “American” match. That’s become a term with clearly identifiable connotations – both positive and negative. Hold your breath for the first five minutes. Hope Tim Howard makes a couple great saves against a hard-charging offense. Defend, defend, defend. Look for the counterattack. Never give up.
Ask many of the great teams what they fear or respect most about the USA team and the answer seems to often be how the team never quits, how it always keeps fighting.
That spirit was on display Tuesday as the USA found itself down two goals with 15 minutes to play. In his first ever World Cup action, Julian Green finished a beautiful service from Michael Bradley to cut the deficit back to a single goal. The team then kept pressuring the Belgian defense with Clint Dempsey and Jermaine Jones having great chances to score – Dempsey’s effort off a signature American free kick set piece. Despite the chances, the equalizer never materialized before the referee sounded the final whistle.
But while we’re praising the team’s fight in those final moments, it came only after another familiar American script put them in that predicament to begin with. The USA performs best when up against the wall, but tends to play flat-footed when it has any sort of breathing room. Once extra time got underway, you could feel the American side revert back to its passive approach. Knowing they had 30 minutes of play left took them out of their do-or-die persona and back to the one we’ve seen against Portugal this year, against Ghana and Slovenia and England in 2010, when the team gave up early goals and put itself in comeback mode.
Tuesday was nothing new, it was what we are. Howard, the team’s leader and most recognizable star, was absolutely magnificent. He kept the team’s hopes alive when the rest of their efforts didn’t support such treatment. He stopped shot after shot, usually on the ground or with his feet. The Belgians weren’t finishing as precisely as I’m sure they’d have liked, but they also weren’t skying any shots over the bar. Howard kept a clean sheet for 90 spectacular minutes.
When Belgium finally beat Howard to take a 1-0 lead just two minutes into extra time, I wasn’t surprised but I also wasn’t discouraged. I looked at my friends and said “We’re still getting a goal.” Little did I know it would be two they’d ultimately need.
The deflation of not scoring on the late Chris Wondolowski chance in regulation carried over. That was expected. They started extra time flat. That was expected.
It’s now going to take something unexpected for the USA to finally break through in a World Cup. They start every first period and every extra session as if the opening five minutes are still warm-ups. That has to stop. They display a sense of urgency only when already behind. That has to stop. They treat just reaching the knockout round as a successful World Cup.
That has begun to stop. More is going to be expected of Team USA in 2018 and as the years progress, but those expectations require the unexpected.
It was a great effort, but three days ahead of our country’s birthday, Tuesday was as American as it gets.
