I went to the USA v. England match last week. It was a nice healthy drive from Joburg to Rustenburg on a small highway that clearly wasn't intended to transport that many rabid fans to a stadium in the middle of nowhere. My friend and I parked the car a few miles from the stadium and hopped on the bus with masses of singing English fans. Cruised into the stadium without problems, found our seats, and the game began.
The Brits are far in front of us with their cheers, and songs, and hand claps and general insults to hurl at the other team. A lot of us American fans resorted to a scattering of old college cheers. We need to get a consensus on this guys! Any songwriters out there want to get us some good music to taunt our foes across the pitch?
The first goal against was brutal. The USA came out looking sloppy and unprepared for the quickness of the English attack. Within minutes we were down 1-nil and the USA fans looked despondent. When a goal is scored so quickly there is a lot of time to get back in the mix though, and after the first ten minutes the US started to play a lot better. Our goal was a miracle of course - no competent keeper should have let that one through.
In the second half the game opened up a lot more. Timmy Howard was my MVP of the game, with brilliant save after save. Jozy's sweet run that ended in a shot off the crossbar almost had the USA fans in fits. What a sweet victory that would've been. I'm getting ready for the Slovenia game now and I think it will go well for our boys. We should have some confidence after drawing England and come out a little more comfortable and ready to play. I think Donovan and Jozy could be a little more assertive, and I'm still not sure who the other striker paired with Jozy was, but please, bench him. He showed nothing the entire match except drawing one penalty at the 40 yard line.
Good luck boys!
For a look at what happened on Friday and what it means, check out Kevin's post.
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