Paradise Lost: The Pain Lingers From Saturday's Defeat

I am in still in pain a few days later.  Just total depression. That’s all I can really say.  Saturday's loss to Ghana is probably the single most painful loss I’ve ever witnessed in sports. When the Red Sox swept the Cardinals in 2004, I hurt for a while. But this is different. This is so much harder to stomach. Every year there’s another chance to go to the World Series, and every year the Cards field a competitive team. The World Cup is so far beyond the scope of the World Series that it cannot even be described. There is simply nothing else like it. When Landon Donovan found the net in stoppage time against Algeria, to in one second take us from elimination to the top of the group, I considered it on par with the Miracle on Ice or Jesse Owens in Berlin. Historic. Magnificent. It’s something that lifts an entire country. An act that permeates the consciousness and imagination of all citizens and brings them together to watch each one of US out there. Then the single reason the competition even exists in the first place swells in our hearts….PRIDE.

The US had inspired and rallied support around soccer like nothing I have ever seen. Our country had the chance to prove it belonged, but instead we’ll all head back to our Fantasy Football and trade deadline rumors. We’re the underdog in this game. We don’t have the pedigree of Brazil, the star power of Spain, or the religiousness of England. We don’t have Kaka, Messi, or Ronaldo. Our best players in this sport are rarely seen in Old Trafford or Camp Nau. And our country only seems to care every 4 years, and only then when something remarkable might happen. The path was set like nothing before this time around though. For once, the Stars and Stripes were positioned to make a real run. No world powerhouses stood in our way, in fact in our road to reach the semi finals, the US was the highest ranked team by FIFA. I simply cannot overstate how truly bitter this loss is, because for once our country had a real chance to make a name for ourselves in the world’s most popular sport. I tire of people bashing soccer or not understanding it. The game is beautiful, and anytime people from this land come together and put on our colors to take the field of battle against another nation, I am transfixed and zealously supportive. I want to see the United States win everything they compete at, and we expect greatness at the international level. The Dream Team, Michael Phelps, Pete Sampras, Tiger Woods, whoever. We all tune in to watch, we all cheer for them to win. But with our soccer team in this World Cup, we could have made a statement to the world, but the opportunity is gone.

I cannot even hardly put into words how let down I am. This is the biggest sporting event in the entire world. We supported our team that went out there and represent each one of us. It’s not just 11 American men out there kicking a ball around, it's all our people out there competing against another people. We should all be proud to be from this country, proud to be an underdog, proud to watch our guys go across the world and play an unpopular game and set the stage for something historic. I wanted to see them do better, to have the world take notice. I wanted to have people in the pubs in London, Rome, and Madrid taking about the Yanks, and how without elite talent they fought their hearts out. How they might not LOVE the sport, but they LOVE competition and support our teams with passion. But, of course we lost. We got outplayed and didn’t convert on our chances while Ghana did. They won. They earned it. It’s that simple. And now the only thing the US soccer will be remembered as in the 2010 FIFA World Cup is perhaps one of those once in a generation opportunities to truly achieve greatness, and how that moment passed by. The excitement will not be forgotten soon though, nor some of our finer moments. But they will eventually fade away, until maybe four years from now the stars will align again and hopefully our country will remember how important this really is.