Astonishing. Amazing. Awe-inspiring.
As I was preparing to watch the US-Italy game on Saturday, all I hoped is that they’d do their best. Their best meaning that when they lost, they’d lose knowing that they gave it their all against a superior Italian team.
What I got was something completely unexpected.
What I got was America playing like men on a soccer field who don’t get respect. Who don’t have anything to fight for except themselves, and to prove everyone wrong. To shut up the naysayers and once again inspire the millions who pinned their hopes on US Soccer’s proverbial back.
From the first minute onwards, they fought like dogs and kept fighting. After the game, Landon Donovan had to be given an IV to replenish fluids. Brian McBride had three stitches under his eye. Jimmy Conrad had cotton stuffed up his nose, and played part of the game with vision so blurry he had to ask a teammate whether he was bleeding. Our goalie Kasey Keller said it just right after the game: “Those guys bled out there.”
But the Americans did the unthinkable- they tied the mighty Italians 1-1. We’ve never taken a single point on European soil, and now it’s finally happened.
It was the most beautiful game of soccer I’d ever seen in my life. I was shaking during and afterwards, and just wanted to tell the guys one thing:
“We’re proud of you.”