And the USMNT is through to the semifinal. They play Spain on Wednesday. South Africa will wile away a couple of Brazil’s idle hours on Thursday. I should probably peel off a quick patriotic valediction, or at least stumble through 600 words about the decline of Italy (already one of the least buoyant world championship teams in recent memory, and sinking fast), but my brain sounds like a plague of vuvuzelas, and I want to go look at the parts of each match that I didn’t watch while watching parts of the other match and figure out how this mathematical sliver managed to come to pass.
Seriously, that sound never portends anything pleasant for Egypt.
Read More: Confederations Cup
by Brian Phillips · June 21, 2009
Character. Heart. Passion. Heart. Mental strength. Character. Play for the badge. Heart. Passion.
Go Charlie Davies!
(He plays for my favourite team, Hammarby!)
Dempsey’s goal: more short-term blessing or long term curse? He’ll now surely be in the lineup next game, and it was without a doubt the single most important goal scored by any player for any team in this tournament, however, he’s been utterly adrift every other minute he’s played.
I think I speak for all Americans when I point at Giuseppe Rossi and laugh, and laugh, and laugh, and laugh, and….
MIghty convenvient that ITaly needed to lose by three and the US to win by three, and gee whiz, despite all prior evidence to the contrary that is *exactly* what happened …
USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA! Still, after the tourni I think Bradley must go.
The US went through on goals scored, the common tie-breaker if points and goal difference are the same. Donovan’s opening penalty in the 3-1 defeat to the Eyeties made all the difference.
Looking at it, the second spot in Group B was actually obscenely close. I would bet my house on a Spain v Brazil final, if I actually owned it.
Given who each team is playing, you could bet your house on a Spain/Brazil final and only win a carport if you’re right.
I voted for bradley to be fired because this is how the US should play ALL THE TIME. The fact that they don‘t is a symptom of coaching not personnel.
I hope Guiseppe Rossi enjoys watching Wednesday’s encounter from the stands…asshole.
What an improbably run – that was a mightily exciting second half.
Congrats Americans…you never know in this beautiful game we might just see my beloved South Africa taking on you guys in the final. (And I would not bet my house on that).
Congrats anyway
If Rossi is an “asshole” then so is Tom Dooley, Ernie Stewart, that Jones guy, Stuart Holden (if he plays for the USA) and … oh … by the way, Joe Gaetjens. You know? The guy who won the “game of their lives” against England at the 1950 World Cup …
Oh, and all of your ancestors that came over here on boats. Assholes too. Because, they were not born here. (It being a probably safe assumption you are not Lakota, Dine’, or the like.)
I was just joking about the Rossi BTW and did not mean to incite any profanity – in this globalized world people and players will feel the pull of more than one nationality, which I why I am actually captaining Guadelupe at this year’s Gold Cup
Well done US; now for Ireland to continue Italy’s demise after the close season in Dublin. Maybe. We’ll take a draw…
Christ Kingsnake, where did you read my comment as being anti-immigration? I have no problems with people choosing to go play/live in/work for other nations when they are disadvantaged in their own, but we laid out the gold-trimmed red carpet for Rossi – he could have easily been the greatest American player ever. Holden is just another player; Rossi is a game-changer. The fact that he chose to snub the US understandably left quite a few American fans very resentful, much as Walcott choosing to play for, I don’t know, Brazil, would have probably pissed off a few Brits. He chose being just another Italian forward over being Chosen One of American soccer – excuse us if we feel marginally insulted.
Personally, I see where the anti-Rossi sentiment is coming from, but I think it’s misplaced. You’re free to feel however you feel about a country, and nobody has to love a nation-state just because somebody else wants him to love it. And Rossi’s ability is obviously the result of his own hard work and his father’s coaching, rather than of some genius US soccer youth development program. The kid left the US when he was 12 and was basically raised from birth to play for Italy, so I can’t see how he qualifies as a traitor just because his priorities don’t line up with a neat sense of American patriotism. Given his father and his family background, it was never that simple in his case.
I’m not upset, just pointing out the inconsistencies in the vitriol directed at Rossi.
Point is, *everybody*, including posters here, seeks to improve themselves, better their wages, etc. Casting aspersions on someone else for doing what you do, is hypocrisy.
Okay, but in fairness, dragging the morality of immigration into this is excessive under the circumstances. First, the rhetoric and the historical weight of it are just much too grandiose to apply to a guy choosing a soccer team, and second, that’s not how Rossi’s justifying his decision. For Rossi, this isn’t about casting off old ties and making a better life in a new land; it’s explicitly about reconnecting with his ancestral heritage in the old country. He’s basically undoing his parents’ original immigration to the US and reversing the familiar American narrative, which I think is one reason this is such a sensitive topic for American fans. Anyway, if anyone’s coming off as an anti-immigration national essentialist here, it’s the Rossis.
Yeah, obviously we have little to do with Rossi’s incredible talent (if we did, there would be many more Rossi’s coming down the line). That being said, Rossi meant a lot more to the USA than he did to Italy. He is a good Italian player, whereas he could have been an American legend (out of respect for everyone’s sanity, I’ll refrain from calling him “the Lebron James of American soccer,” but you get the idea). To have that taken away from us makes American fans more than a little bitter. I suppose its not Rossi’s fault – him being a good soccer player who happened to be eligible for the US does not implore him to dedicate his life to being an American superstar; he is fully entitled to his own life choices. Our anger needs to go somewhere though.
AlexZ – While I disagree with your take on the Rossi non-saga, the long, long, wait for world-class players is a heavy burden for U.S. fans. We desperately need skill and spark going forward, and our lack is such that a player with only tenuous connections to us can provoke a kind of madness when he thumps one past Howard from 30 yards. But you revealed a fundamental truth by admitting that you put the “Chosen One of American Soccer” and “just another Italian forward” archetypes on roughly the same plane.
and really, if you had to choose between the four-time and defending world champions who it just so happens have defeciencies in the position you played, and a nation where your sport is at best 5th of the totem pole…guiseppe made the most rational decision, if anything. ask yourself, which side would Tony Soprano have played for?
Anybody in their right mind, with the same choice, would have chosen Italy.
A choice to have good odds of winning one (or more) World Cups, and make untold millions of dollars, setting up you, your children and possibly even grandchildren, for life, versus struggling to even qualify for the World Cup …
And yet KingSnake, Rossi’s on his way back to America now to visit his family, while the rest of the Americans in the tournament prep for a semi-final game against Spain.
I’m just saying…
Alright guys, I tried to be the dispassionate observer, but did you really just knock Italy’s frontline? Luca Toni easily the most entertaining player in the sport today, the Fourth Stooge who can combine moments of genius and idiocy within the same play.
America is like a scorned lover; yeah, Rossi had every rational right to make that choice, but we have every rational right to be pissed about it.
I don’t see how American fans can be said to have a ‘rational right to be pissed’ without: a) showing the same attitude towards many of the American players (Ramos, Adu, Dooley, Preki, Jermaine Jones, Earnie Stewart) who have done similar choices as Rossi, or b) being *completely* hypocritical.
Perfectly fine to appreciate the irony of his season being over while the yanks play on though, even if the Confeds Cup isn’t the pinnacle of competition.
Its all about expectations and who is on the short end of the stick – For example, as a “neutral” Yank I can say that Irish football fans should thank Roy Keane for bravely leading the team to World Cup qualification in 2002.
Granted, he did not make the trip to Korea, but at least he helped the team qualify which was a pretty big achievement. Or is qualifying for the World Cup something to be taken for granted?
I root for Rossi more in an Italy jersey than I would in an USA jersey. The guy is a great ambassador for American soccer, not a slap in the face. Team USA will always net talent through the immigration rules so it’s not worth sweating Rossi’s value as an individual.