How we should feel about USA-Portugal

I had to give myself time to reflect and for some of the emotions to die down before writing this, but both of the goals Portugal scored on Sunday still hurt 36 hours later. I know that I am not the only one out there who has had them replaying over and over in my head since the final whistle blew. Sunday could have been such a magical day in US Soccer’s history, but instead it ended with heartbreak and will lead to two of the longest hours of our lives this Thursday.

It isn’t that we gave up two goals to Portugal, that I can live with, but it’s how we allowed those two goals. The first was a fluke missed clearance from a guy who is coming off of a fantastic season in the English Premier League for Stoke City and was our best player against Ghana. It sucks, but it’s just one of those unlucky things that happens so often in a game of soccer. I can live with having unlucky bounces like that go against us, especially when it’s that early in a game and we can respond.

The second goal was a terrible one to give up, for way more than one reason. The timing of the goal is what will make it stay in the minds of USMNT fans for a long time regardless of Thursday’s results, and probably forever if we don’t advance. It was a heartbreaking way to end a game in which the US controlled the flow of the game and had way more dangerous chances than Portugal. However, the much more disappointing aspect of the goal was how incredibly preventable it was. It would be one thing if the goal was an unsaveable 35-yard bullet from Ronaldo. It would be ok if it was the result of a dominant stretch of Portuguese possession and chances. And don’t get me wrong; the cross from Ronaldo was picture perfect and world class. But none of that should have mattered. That goal was easily preventable at so many points.  

First off, Beasley, Jones, and Yedlin all turned the ball over in the three minutes prior to the sequence of events that led to the draw. None of the three were under heavy pressure and all three should know better—especially a veteran in his fourth World Cup (Beasley) and a guy who has been in and out of the Champions League for the past 10 years (Jones). But we were able to overcome those mental mistakes and got ourselves into the best situation possible; Michael Bradley with the ball in space and 30 seconds left. If you could have picked any player in US Soccer history to be in that situation, Bradley would be in the top three. He’s an incredibly smart player who has a very good first touch. Throughout the entire game, he had only missed on nine passes—all of which were in the offensive third of the field or went out of bounds. He flat out does not turn the ball over in bad spots. Unfortunately this was the one time that his brains and touch let him down. As soon as he turned the ball over my heart dropped, and as soon as I saw Ronaldo in space on the wing it dropped even further. But we were still ok. Beasley had coverage on Ronaldo ensuring that he wasn’t going to walk in free and get off a shot. We had three guys covering their one in the box, and had just subbed Omar Gonzalez on for Graham Zusi for the sole purpose of not allowing crosses to end up on a Portuguese head. Unfortunately Fabian Johnson couldn’t keep up with Varela, Geoff Cameron didn’t pick up the run and front Varela, and Omar Gonzalez was nowhere to be found. A foot higher, lower, left, or right on the cross and this is a moot point. It had to be a perfect delivery from Ronaldo and it was. But even a perfect cross shouldn’t have gotten onto Varela’s head, and honestly the cross should have never even been attempted. We had the game in our hands and had a perfect opportunity to kill it but didn’t.

That is why the fans and players of the USMNT should not be happy with where we are sitting right now. We had an opportunity to clinch the knockout round and give ourselves an opportunity to win the Group of Death with a draw against Germany. Would we have taken four points from the first two games at the beginning of the tournament? Of course we would have. Are we still in a good position to advance? Of course we are. But that doesn’t mean that we should be happy with where we sit.

But here is the part that we should be happy about. We vastly outplayed a nation that just two years ago came in third at the European Championships. We not only had more chances than them, but we had much better chances than them. Yes, it was a somewhat depleted Portugal side due to injury and a red card. But look at the teams that the replacements play for—Valencia, Benfica and Lazio. The “replacements” were certainly not scrubs, yet the 11 guys that were wearing red white and blue were the better players on the field that night. And don’t forget that we had a very important player of our own missing due to injury (Altidore).

Our players showed tremendous mental strength to fight back from an unlucky bounce/mental error that put us down 1-0 after only five minutes. This response came just days after a late goal won it against Ghana after giving up a deflating goal in the 82^nd minute. The American spirit of never giving up is alive and well in this national side.

And finally, we are still in a good spot to advance. We control our own destiny. A victory and we win the group. A draw and we take advance with a second place finish. There are also a number of scenarios that would see us advance even with a loss. In two games, we took four points off of our nemesis and the best player in the world. We might have won the game that we deserved to draw and drew the game that we deserved to win, but we are exactly where we deserve to be and exactly where people were hoping we would be after two games.

If Germany had taken care of business and beaten Ghana we would have one foot and half the other in the next round right now. But they didn’t and we couldn’t close out a game that we should have, so we are sitting here preparing to hold our breaths for two hours come Thursday. So how should we feel? Just like our favorite Norwegian-American, mixed.

We should be proud of our team’s fight and happy with the level that our national team and the sport is at. The game against Portugal was the most watched soccer game in American TV history—and that doesn’t count bars/watch parties, factor in the fact that it was on cable, combine viewership between ESPN and Univision, or include the people who made the game the most watched event in WatchESPN history. The team that we have is one of the best teams in US Soccer history. We have more exciting talents in youth systems around the world than ever before, and a league that is consistently growing at home. The sport continues to evolve and gain popularity in this country and although we are still far from elite, we have a team that is capable of winning games through skill rather than physicality and athleticism.

But we should also feel discouraged. We had a golden opportunity to make a huge statement and put ourselves in position to win a group labeled by all as the “Group of Death.” Plain and simple, we choked at the end of a game that we had in our hands. We allowed 85 minutes of great play to be rendered fruitless with two very poor five-minute stretches to begin and end the game. There was so much positive play, yet it wasn’t enough. The national team is constantly evolving and improving, but it hasn’t improved enough to be able to overcome mental mistakes or moments of individual brilliance from the opponent. We’re on the road to where we want to be, but we aren’t there yet. And probably the biggest punch to the gut and worst part of the entire situation, we should feel terrified that this result opened up the door for Ghana to knock us out of the third consecutive World Cup, despite us beating them. We control our destiny but will need a Herculean effort on Thursday to get a point off of the Germans, especially with Jozy Altidore still nursing his hamstring and unable to play.

And above all, we should feel great that we drew Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo but aren’t fully happy with the result. That right there shows how far the sport and national team has come over the past 24 years, when just qualifying for the 1990 World Cup was almost miraculous.

As much as that late goal hurts, that is the beauty of sports. You can be ecstatic one minute and in a state of disbelief the next. The future is never known and anything can happen at any given moment. The saying in American football is “any given Sunday.” But right now, we should be saying “any given Thursday.” See you all then for USA-Germany and Ghana-Portugal.