There are two events in sports that truly brings everybody in the world together for one month where hate, feuds, and war seems to take a backseat. One happened in February. That being the Olympics. And the other being the World Cup, which started this morning in South Africa. Two events that you can not avoid seeing or hearing about no matter how hard you try.
It is during these two events you will see more than ever the biggest displays of country pride. You can make a small case how the World Baseball Classic also does this. However it is not quite there with the Olympics and the World Cup. But it is slowly getting there.
Think back to the Winter Olympics in Canada. Country flags everywhere. All you saw on your Twitters and Facebooks were things that were about whatever event happened. Whether it was celebrating a medal or an outcome. We were all brought together under our nations flag. During that time we as Americans found ourselves paying attention to a sport that really is second class here in form of hockey. What Team USA hockey did in February was astonishing. They went further than ever before and the country responded by showing more pride than I've seen in a long time.
Think back to last summer. Team USA was playing in the Confederations Cup with some of the best teams in the world. We all remember how they beat Spain, ranked number one in the world at that time and nearly defeated now number one ranked Brazil in the final. That gave us a taste what could come in the next month. Those two outing got Americans excited for the World Cup and the game of soccer, another second class sport in America, was finally starting to peak in attention. Then USA went on to win the CONCACAF on home soil and the country grew even more excited when USA was drawn in the same group with England. Last weekend Team USA played their final tune up game on American soil in Philadelphia in front of a record crowd of 55,000 plus.
After the groups were drawn for the World Cup, numerous tourist agencies released statements saying that Americans bought more World Cup tickets and booked trips to South Africa than any other country. That didn't come as a big surprise to me. The game has seemed to finally peak in interest and many feel this is America's best team ever assembled.
One thing I've noticed in recent years is the better the opponent is, the better USA plays. Take last year for example. Beating Spain, nearly beating Brazil, beating Mexico in qualifications. In the 2006 World Cup they played their best match was against Italy, the team that won the tournament. But then struggled against the Czech Republic and Ghana, two matches the Americans were favored to win. Back in 2002 they shocked the world by defeating favorite Portugal in group play. That is still considered one of the all time great upsets in World Cup history. Then they failed to defeat host South Korea and a weak Poland team. They still advanced to the knock out rounds where they defeated Mexico and lost to Germany in the quarterfinals 1-0.
But now USA soccer has a brighter spotlight on them than ever before. I firmly believe if they beat England on Saturday they have a chance to go farther than ever before. Winning the group would set them up for favorable match-ups in the round of sixteen and quarterfinals before running into a powerhouse nation like a Brazil or Netherlands.
Here are your two scenarios. If USA wins their group they avoid Germany completely and would face either Ghana, Australia, or Serbia in the second round. In the quarterfinals they would most likely face the Group A winner who I have on my bracket as Mexico. That would give the Americans the winner of a potential Netherlands-Brazil match-up in the final four. If they get past one of those two teams they could face several soccer powers in the finals in Argentina, Germany, Spain, Italy, or England.
Now say the Americans place second in their group like most say they will. That will set up a second round match-up with Germany and they would have to beat all the potential final teams just to make it to the final. Many feel that the outcome against England will ultimately decide the fate of this team.
Of course the World Cup won't fully distract us from some events like the oil spill in the gulf but our national pride for the next month will potentially be the highest it has been in a long long time. Come Saturday the Americans will be center stage and the entire country will be watching while waving the stars and stripes with pride and honor. During the viewing of the draw, Americans in bars and parties all over the country were chanting "we want England". Well we got what we wished for and its time to show the world that the United States is talented enough to hang with the big dogs of the sports. A strong showing this year will most certainly help the United State's case to bringing a future World Cup back to American soil as they look to bid for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Good luck Team USA, your country is behind you and will be watching. Your logged into the Radio Blog Network, till next time... Go USA.
