U.S. soccer fans rue lost opportunity

JOHANNESBURG – The gates of Ellis Park Stadium opened and the Americans poured out angry, discouraged and confused; not sure whether to scream about a referee’s call or wonder how the U.S. soccer team could nearly lose to someone from a country with a population smaller than metropolitan St. Louis.
Soccer came very close to dying in the United States on Friday. Not literally but in the figurative sense that every result from the cheap nfl jerseys national team undulates like a soccer stock market climbing and crashing with every swing of Landon Donovan’s foot.
So many hopes followed the U.S. to South Africa. No foreign country bought more tickets for this World Cup and Americans are everywhere. On Friday afternoon, under the brilliant African autumn sun, they flooded Ellis Park certain of success, happy and festive, dressed in costumes, waving flags, encouraged by a tie the previous weekend with England. If ever there was a moment when soccer was destined to take off for America it was here with the assumption of victory against Slovenia.
Then the U.S. fell behind 2-0.
And with that second goal the life drained from Ellis Park. Americans who filled the lower stands slumped in their seats. They sighed in disbelief.
One spectator, not an American, shouted, “Beckham can go home now, there is no soccer in the U.S!”
It would take a second-half frenzy to save soccer in America, which also got a boost from England’s 0-0 draw with Algeria. Donovan scored the first U.S. goal in this 2-2 tie and Michael Bradley knocked in the other. The third, the one that should have won the game, was waved off despite no great evidence as to why it was disallowed.
For a time on Friday it gave the fans something to seize; a seeming unfairness as robbery. “We got screwed!” said Dan Saachs, a student from Boston as he stood outside Ellis Park on Friday evening.
His friends fiddled with cell phones, looking up the first wire stories containing the initial quotes from the American players and they saw the U.S. team was saying it had no idea why the goal was taken away. They shook their heads. But even as they grumbled about referee Koman Coulibaly and wondered best nfl jerseys aloud whether the man would ever be allowed to work a World Cup game again, they appeared to understand the USA was left scrambling from a self-made hole.
“After four years of high expectations it’s a definite blow,” said Rich Schreiber, an American fan from Sacramento.
Fairly or not, a lot is demanded from this national team. Perhaps it says something about how far soccer has come in America that the U.S. players should feel such pressure. Back when the United States hosted the 1994 World Cup, the hope was the Americans would not embarrass themselves. One-goal losses were seen as positives, ties were a bonus.
But a lot has happened since then and the U.S.’s run to the finals of last summer’s Confederations Cup here raised the level of performance. For the first time America is really paying attention to soccer. It’s willing to believe, to jump aboard. Major League Soccer can grow. Young soccer stars can emerge. A lot can happen if this team makes a run.
And yet a lot can disappear too. All the momentum that followed the Americans – the greater name recognition of players, the interest in watching games, the stopping of life in the middle of a late spring afternoon to see how the U.S. would do on Friday – gave soccer the best chance it has had in the United States.
Trailing by two goals to a team with Charlie Brown T-shirts does not take the game to the next level. Scrambling for a tie simply means it doesn’t fall off.
At least not yet.
If the U.S. can’t make it out of its group next week a great chance will be lost. America is not at a point with soccer where it can endure a disappointment in South Africa and expect the game to boom back home. Especially when a chance to host the 2022 World Cup looms with FIFA’s announcement at year’s end. It’s clear FIFA wants to choose host countries solely for monetary reasons in 2018 and 2022. The U.S. is the perfect pick, the safest selection, but it’s hard to award the World Cup to a place that can’t guarantee it will advance past the group stage.
What a difference a week makes. Last Saturday, the American fans celebrated a 1-1 tie with England as if it was a 10-0 victory. They sang and screamed and blew vuvuzelas. They waved flags that read “Don’t Tread on china nfl jerseys Me.” On Friday, with a 2-2 tie against Slovenia behind them, they slumped quietly through the concourses, down the corkscrew ramps and into the night. Perhaps the referee did rob the U.S. Maybe a draw should have been a USA win, but they also seemed to understand it never should have come to a blown call.
And that soccer in America also might have blown a brilliant opportunity.