USA Soccer, A Missed Opportunity

Preface: I know as much about soccer as Peter King does about twitter and JC Romero does about steroids. Wait…

To many American’s a tie is like kissing your sister. Soccer is a sport where it seems like ties and even losses can be rewarded. This weekend’s loss to Brazil could have been one of the more beneficial losses in US Soccer history. However, a win could have put soccer on the map in the US.

America does not appreciate ties or regulation losses that are actually a plus on some level (see hockey). Not to mention the whole idea of aggregate goals just seems bizarre. I’d be willing to bet that a number of people who read this won’t even know what it means for a soccer team to “win on aggregate”.

I’m not even sure I know. I believe  aggregate goals refers to the total goals count from teams that play each other twice. This is used in the UEFA Champions League. So, essentially, the team that score the most goals over two matches will progress to the next phase.

It’s a concept that is so foreign to US sports fans.

If you think about it that way then the US was outscored 6-2 in the Confenderations Cup by Brazil. Also, not to mention that header that was not called a goal but was clearly about a foot in the net when Howard snatched the ball.

Sure, this might have shown that the US can play with the best of them. But at the same time South Africa also looked great against Spain. Maybe this was a case of Spain and Brazil thinking that they would just cake walk their way to the World Cup next summer. I won’t be holding my breath to see another big upset involving these two perennial powers.