There’s an interesting dynamic going on during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in the United States. Football has taken over the sports stage, and I’m not talking about that game with the pigskin.
Instead, I’m talking about soccer—the sport that although is number one in the rest of the world, takes a backseat in the U.S. to football, basketball, baseball and hockey. Portland has a great soccer culture, but that attitude cannot be found throughout the U.S. But at the world’s biggest sporting event, which only happens every four years, how can every sports fan not be watching?
This World Cup has been exciting, and I mean goals galore in the beautiful game exciting. As a fan of American soccer, it’s been even more exciting. The U.S. has arguably one of their best teams ever out on the field in 2014, and they also face one of the most challenging groups in Brazil, facing the likes of Ghana, Portugal and Germany.
For any chance of the U.S. advancing, they would need to get three points from Ghana. Facing the likes of powers like Germany and Portugal in their last two games, the Americans faced their easiest challenge first, and came up with a big three points.
The win was huge, but it was not all good for the USA, who lost forward Jozy Altidore to a hamstring injury in the first half. Altidore’s status for the rest of the world cup is unclear.
On Sunday the U.S. played a strong Portugal side led by Cristiano Ronaldo, a player some would argue is the best in the world today. The Americans had their work cut out for them. Beating Ghana 2–1 was one thing, but Clint Dempsey and his squad knew they had to play better to beat a team FIFA ranked as the fourth best in the world.
The USA faltered early, giving up an early goal. They went into the half down by that goal, but came out firing in the second half with a powerful shot by Jermaine Jones, leaving Portugal’s keeper rooted to the ground to watch the ball fly past him into the net. Later, the U.S. saw numbers on the attack, and after a few attempts at goal, Dempsey found the ball with his chest and scored, giving the U.S. the lead and what many thought would be the three points sending the USA into the knockout stage.
But wait. Ronaldo wasn’t finished. With just 30 seconds left in the game, Ronaldo fired a cross into the box—perfectly hitting his teammate Silvestre Varela square on the head, tying the game and giving Portugal some World Cup hope after all.
Now the U.S. play one of the World Cup favorites in Germany, with a spot in the knockout round on the line based on the American’s performance.
A win or a tie, and the U.S. is on. A loss is where things get interesting. At that point, whoever wins the Portugal vs. Ghana game would be in a position to tie the Americans, and move onto the knockout round.
The U.S. plays Germany on Thursday at 9 a.m.