[OT] World Cup Soccer -- USA vs Portugal

3-1 US at halftime.

Team USA is playing an amazing game. This is another big upset in the making... while most of you sleeps!

3-2 final.
US just beat Portugal, one of the favorites to win the Cup.

Wake up America!

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!

That was such a tense second half. I constantly thought that we were on the verge of a horrible collapse, but they hung tough. I still can't believe we won with injuries to Reyna, Mathis and Keller. (Friedel is a very good goalie, but I am a Keller loyalist from the days when Milutinovic wouldn't even invite him to training camp.)

All hail Bruce Arena!

For those of you who like soccer but didn't drag yourselves out of bed to watch the game, I strongly suggest watching the rebroadcast at, ah, 3pm today I think. Well worth it. Awesome!

It was a great game. USA actually controlled most of the first half -- even they had this look of "what the hell is going on here?" The first goal was hard work, the second was good luck (own goal off the face of a defender), the third was a thing of beauty. Portugal then had a hard work goal and an own goal on a scrum in front, but the US did play great down the stretch and earned the win.

We have an attack *and* a midfield game -- who the heck woulda thought?

Congrats to them on the biggest upset win in US World Cup history (and only the 5th win of all time).

According to the World Cup TV Schedule (as of a couple of days ago), there will be a re-broadcast of the game on ESPN Classic (little did they know what a classic it would be) at 1pm Eastern today.

I almost posted about this during the first half (when Sam's Army started chanting "O-ver-ra-ted" with the US up 2-0) but was afraid of spoiling. I had got up at 3:30am to shower and watch the first half before heading to the airport for a 6am flight. (I'm visiting Mom in Kingston, where she's in the hospital recovering amazingly well from a very scary bout of double-pneumonia.) I was so distracted at the 3-1 halftime lead that I forgot my suitcase and had to drive all the way back to my apartment, barely making my flight. I listened to most of the second half (as best I could) in Spanish on my car radio while driving to and from the airport, then wondered why the TV in the airport bar was not showing it while we were lining up for security screening. I ducked out of line (there were about 8 minutes left when I got out of my car) and asked the barman to put it on. He said he had no idea how to work the TV but I was welcome to try. Well, it turns out the bar's DirecTV subscription didn't include ESPN2, and I didn't have the presence of mind to look for a Mexican broadcast station before running back to the security line. So I had to wait until we landed in Houston an hour later. (I had asked the flight attendant if the cockpit crew had the results, but also asked that they not announce them over the PA after my Super Bowl spoilage experience, in case any passengers were planning to watch the re-broadcast. It was academic, since no one in the tower knew the final.) I was a little disappointed not to have the airport full of people chanting "USA" (which I only think is justified after an upset victory, not a Dream Team bloodletting), after the impromptu Senegalese parade I'd seen in Pisa last Friday. (Forza Senegal!) I wonder if this will make the cover of Sports Illustrated next week...

John, please pass on best recovery wishes to your mom. Double P is scary stuff.

Oh, man. I set my VCR to tape the ESPN2 rebroadcast when I left for the airport, but I somehow managed to tape only the first half, which was the half I saw live.

Mom came home from the hospital yesterday, and we watched Ireland beat Saudia Arabia before I left.