Before the semifinal match of the Confederations Cup, many had already marked down the Spanish national soccer team, ranked number one in the world by FIFA, as the winners over the United States. But they couldn't be farther than right, as the underdog American team pulled off a huge upset in a 2-0 win.
I'm going to admit it, I'm no soccer genius. I don't know much strategy, if any at all, and most of what I know comes from playing the video game Fifa 08. But I did notice a few things during the game today.
The game was very physical, lots of tackles and rough play. It seemed like Spain had a ton of scoring opportunities throughout the first half, but their stars like Fernando Torres just couldnt take advantage. America played like it was running solely on adrenaline and emotion, while Spain's calm and relaxed play eventually became too calm and relax, resulting in costly mistakes. The American defense, although it occasionally lapsed, played pretty well, and made Torres ineffective. The physical American play was too much for the more finesse Spaniards.
Because I don't know much about soccer strategy, I also focused on some other things in the game. First of all, I think soccer gets a bad rap for "taking too long." However, I thought the game today moved along very nicely. The 90 minutes of play seemed much quicker that it actually was. The referees often let the players play through things that could have been called as penalties. The refs, except for one horrid call (giving American Michael Bradley a red card for a slide tackle that should've been only a yellow in the 86th minute), I thought were pretty good. However, this is in comparison to the zebras of popular American sports, which I often find myself yelling at through the T.V.
Also, I thought the jerseys were really sweet, especially for Spain. I like the dark piping coming down from the neck, and I think the red, gold and black all end up making a very nice uniform. Kudos to Adidas. The American ones were pretty good too; simple, but they look good. American football teams could learn a thing or two about uniforms from these soccer teams. I mean really, would you rather have your team wear this or this?
The overall production of the game by ESPN and fifa.com was better than most American sporting events. The camera work was good, and I thought the announcers were good. And by good, I mean not stupid and annoying like many commentators are nowadays. I think the fifa.com internet gamecast was one of the best things I've ever witnessed on the internet. FIFA went into great detail about what was happening in the plays. Such phrases like "glorious attempt by Dempsey just goes off target" and "heroic defense by the Americans" were common. And when play slowed down, blurbs about how the Spaniards must continue to attack Tim Howard popped up. If only American football gamecasts were like this, instead of "3 yard rush by Clinton Portis." I'd like to see "glorious attempt to break through into the open field by Portis goes for a mere three yards, due to heroic tackling by Brian Urlacher. If the Chicago defensive unit can keep this superb play up, they may be able to fantastically win this game against Washington." Heck, even the live fan chats are more intelligent. There's no spam about finding your true love just by entering your social security code here, but real talk about what's happening in the game by fans. Whoever writes the gamecast updates for fifa.com should get a substantive raise, in my opinion.
Another thing I liked about this game was that the players played hard for all 90 minutes and some. In many other sports, near the end of the game, many players just give up if they think their team's deficit is too large to make up, especially in American football. But in soccer, these players were playing it tough all the way until the whistle. Even in stoppage time, Spanish players continued to attack the U.S., and the Americans kept making tackles. I liked that a lot about this match.
After watching this game, a glorious upset by the American squad, led by the heroics of Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore and Tim Howard, makes me, along with many other Americans, want to watch more soccer. This victory is most likely the biggest in American soccer history, and may remind you of the Miracle on Ice, when the underdog American hockey team knocked off the juggernaut Soviet Union. On Sunday, when the U.S. takes on either South Africa or Brazil for the Confederations Cup title, expect many Americans to be watching the U.S. try to finish off a glorious run that would earn American soccer a lot of respect from the rest of the soccer world and America itself.
(image h/t: foxsports.com)
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