Team USA's nation of believers

America gets a bad rap around the world.

We're cocky. We're fat. We have too much money. We get involved in everyone's business. And on the world stage, no one gives us much respect.

Enter the world of soccer (or football, as everyone else calls it). Soccer is the world's game. Kids in Africa and the Central/Southern American countries grow up playing it in the streets. Soccer in Europe is like the MLB or the NFL in America--everyone's got a team to root for, and players are traded and swapped and bribed around teams all season until a league winner is crowned. But it hadn't really caught on in America until recently.

Sure, kids play it and we have summer camps and a major league team and even some opportunities for women. But we don't have big stars like Beckham, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo or Messi. We don't have huge national soccer tournaments. We'd rather tune in to our own version of football than everyone else's, and our fans certainly aren't characterized like the face-painting, vuvuzela-blowing raucous crowds that everyone else seems to have.

I have never been a huge fan of the US team. Of course, I have national pride, but in the 2006 World Cup it seemed wasted on our squad. Who were these men, thinking they were so tough amidst these glamorous teams from Europe and South America? Thinking they had the guts to make a run? I'm quite confident our 2008 Olympic champion women's team could have swept the floor with them.

But they had four years to shape up, and I had four years to develop my own soccer skill (and thus, my critical eye). And when this year's Cup rolled around, I watched our little Yankee underdogs with a bit less hostility.


A lucky tie against England and an unlucky tie against Slovenia (that goal should have counted!) were, nonetheless, ties. Never mind that we came from an 0-2 deficit against the Slovenians starting in the second half. In the point brackets, it was still a tie.

But Algeria. Wednesday's match against Algeria was nothing short of magnificent. I'll say that in hindsight, though I was screaming at all of our missed chances the entire game. Our World Cup this year has been one of both good and bad luck, as I said before. And as time wound down and as shot after shot went awry or was scooped up by the Algerian keeper, my little glimmer of hope in our ragtag, come-from-behind team was waning.

And then, it happened. Tim Howard snatched the ball off of an Algerian shot and whipped it down the field to Landon Donovan. Donovan passed it off and it landed at the feet of Jozy Altidore, who in his haste kicked the ball out a little too far into the box and into Rais M’Bolhi's goalie gloves. The charging Clint Dempsey tripped over the deflection and the ball rolled forward... leaving a wide open shot for Donovan to run in and punish the back of the net!!

GGGOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! USA! USA! USA!

My girlfriend and I jumped up from the couch, screaming. The dog started howling. The announcer was hollering in his British accent as Donovan, our hero, slid on his belly down the goal line and got mobbed by his team. Bob Bradley smiled. The USA fans in the crowd went nuts, from the eagles to Captain America to Elvis to those just decked out in their patriotic best.

It was a damn good day for America.

Never mind the two disallowed goals, none of that mattered anymore. We were through, we won the group, we proved our worth in the bracket. And it showed up everywhere, all over the news. Our little team had WON. For the third game in a row we had held on and pulled one out in the last minute to save our asses and our reputations.

We may not be the classiest players on the field or have the most famous players. Our fan base may not be huge, but it is loyal. And it's growing, especially after today. When we've got an energy crisis, a huge oil spill, two wars we're losing, crooked politicians left and right and a still-weak economy on our hands, soccer is becoming the one thing we can turn to for support and strength. We believe in the pride of our nation and the glory of our team to bring us home a victory!