Wednesday, June 23

Three Games, Three Comebacks

The heart naturally picks up in pace when the stars and stripes take to the pitch. But this team certainly has a flair for the dramatic. For the third consecutive time, the US found themselves trailing yet again.

Sure, the scoreboard in Pretoria read 0-0 for 90 minutes and the post-game analysis is rightly focusing on the game-winning goal. But what is being lost is that the US again spent much of the contest behind, this time to an opponent 588 miles away in Port Elizabeth as England had scored 23 minutes into their match.

Needing a victory or a finish equal to or better than England, the US again found themselves in a hole. Thankfully, Rafik Djebbour’s shot just minutes into the match after Jay DeMerit missed a bouncing long ball clanged off the crossbar or the Americans would likely be headed home.

Although some people are giving Bob Bradley some credit for this result, I think we still need to look at the bigger picture once this tournament is over. Six of their 10 CONCACAF qualifiers also saw the US trail only to see them rally for three wins and two draws against one loss. At some point, somebody needs to address this concern. But for now, wheh!

My suggestion for Saturday: Bob Bradley needs to tell the boys as they walk out on the pitch that Ghana just scored.

No comments:

Post a Comment