US Loses To Germany 1-0, But Shows The World USA Soccer Is For Real

ESPN ^ | June 20,2002 | Self

[Illbay]

Nothing much to add. I saw only the last fifteen minutes of the game.

Germany went ahead on a header that'd have been nearly impossible for any keeper to ward off, and the US nearly came back and tied it--it was literally a matter of inches.

At the end of the game the German keeper collapsed to the ground.

This was a case of fighting one of THE premier teams in the world to a near standstill.

We come away from this tournament with elevated stature in international soccer.

Thank you, Team USA, you did your country proud!

USA! USA! USA!

[Sam's Army]

Make no mistake; Gordon was The Man.

My claim to fame was Peter Mellor (sp?)scouting me about 2 years ago in a tournament and he helped me off the field when I suffered a save with a sensitve area shall we say.

I had no idea who he was until he left.

[MissouriForBush]

I agree. Team USA did a fantastic job. I watched the game with other American expats and tourists at the Hard Rock Cafe here in Munich. But the Germans in the restaurant weren't gloating at the end of the game. They KNEW how well Team USA played!

[dts32041]

Yawn to the globalist conspiracy.

[E Rocc]

Gotta thank you for getting The Hitman off our hands. He's a great run stuffer, but those knees of his are shot.

The guys at Cleveland Clinic (probably the best sports medicine facility in America) didn't seem to think so, and they wouldn't likely steer a $100 million dollar contributor wrong. >:)

Good luck during the season, but really, The Stillers are Super Bowl bound this year.

Only if you find a QB that doesn't choke when it counts. Speaking of wheels, aren't the Bus's getting a little out of alignment? >:)

-Eric

[Michael2001]

Around the 50th minute, we got a goal about a hair passed the goal line, and the ref didn't call it, also hit the German player on the hand which should've given us a penalty kick with a 90% chance of making it.

Can't fault not calling that the ball passed the goal line, but how on earth did the Ref miss that hand ball. We wuz robbed.

[reagandemocrat]

What was with the rainbow stripes on the german players jerseys above their names?

[CTO XYEB]

> what is soccer?
It's a game where every player on the field gets to touch a ball.

[amused]

While Scott Norwood of the Bills and Bill Buckner of the Red Sox kept low profiles after their game loosing blunders, they were not killed by out of control fans.

If they were soccer players, they would be DEAD.

Agreed.

However Norwood was not really harassed. Buckner had to move to South Dakota because classy Boston fans would shout nasty things at his kids. Mitch Williams received death threats for at least a year from fans in the city of brotherly love. But soccer fans take the cake for sheer mania and over-reaction to, when all is said and done, just a game.

[CTO XYEB]

... and baseball is the communist sport, since Fidel Castro is a huge fan

[CTO XYEB]

Are you saying that any team in the NFL, besides the Super Bowl winner, deserves no respect?

[BlackRazor]

However Norwood was not really harassed.

I've always thought Norwood got a raw deal. It's not like he missed an extra point or a chip shot. That was a 47-yard field goal. Hardly a "gimme".

[Rebelbase]

This will help to pass the time until next season.

[Illbay]

Man, your tin-foil hat is on a bit too tight.

You need to loosen it up a bit.

[Illbay]

Soccer fans accept losses as victories.

That's not what we're talking about here. What we're saying is that the U.S. went head-to-head and toe-to-toe with Germany, one of the elite world powers in the sport, and came away bloody but unbowed.

Yes, a win would have been fabulous.

But c'mon, are you REALLY telling me that if an NFL team goes, say 3-13 for about a decade, then one year wins 5 games, and then the next year wins EIGHT games, that the pundits aren't gonna say "hey, that team seems to be coming around. If this keeps up we can expect big things from them in the coming seasons"?

Your attitude is VERY typical of the throw-away, here-and-now, entertain-me-this-minute, ADD-inspired attitude that makes our current culture so shallow.

Understand the ULTIMATE GOAL, and don't focus on one game. A loss is a loss, yes, but as I said in a previous post, this game shouldn't have even been close, and the U.S. had Germany fighting for its life during the entire contest. That DOES mean something, even if your trivia-plagued mind can't grasp it.

[Benrand]

You see, you take away Da Bus and ya got FU and Amoz, and possibly Verron Haynes with Danny Kreider in and out. And even RJ Bowers is a tough runner.

No James Jacksons on this team. :o)

BTW, my thoughts are that Bettis is done. I think it's a Fred Taylor-type injury and he's just not keeping himself together, not that it matters, as it appears.

[Remole]

While watching the game (which, by the way was MUCH more entertaining than the England-Brasil match), I was struck by the difference in size between the average American player and the average German player. With the exception of Friedel and Sanneh, the US had no one on the field that matched up physically with the German counterpart. Now, the examples of Pele and Maradona show that the best mid-fielders are short and strong and agile, but in almost all other positions you need people of some size.

The German defenders, wings, and attackers averaged 6 ft 2 in and 195 lbs; they looked like your basic NFL cornerback/ safety/ lanky wide receiver. Or imagine if Ken Griffey Jr. had taken up soccer instead of baseball. By comparison, Landon Donovan is 5'10", 165 lbs; Eddie Pope the same; DeMarcus Beasley is 5'7" 135 lbs, for crying out loud--had he played the Germans would have broken him like a twig.

The challenge for American soccer is to encourage people of moderate size to try out soccer instead of football or basketball.

[BMCDA]

Huh? Rainbow? What a rainbow?