At least when it comes to the World Cup. The match on Saturday was a heartbreaking match to watch, not only did Tim Howard let in (another) goal in the first five minutes of the game, but we were only able to score due to a penalty kick... Now, if you recently fell in love with the US team, you might want to skip this post. I feel the need to vent a bit about a couple of key players that have gained popularity. Not only were these players unknown to probably 95% of the American population, but after watching four games every American feels that they have the knowledge to comment on these players' skills. If you think this is pretentious, I apologize in advance, but due to the fact that I've been a fan (not of the US team) for many, many years I actually know what I'm talking about.
First off, let me start off with Howard. After hearing all of this talk from various people about how amazing Howard is, I think he pretty much sucks, sorry to the rest of America. No, its not because he has tourettes (which I don't see how that is relevant at all!) but due to the fact that in every game the US played in the World Cup, he let in an extremely soft goal within the first five minutes of every match except the match against Algeria. Next is Demspey. In the first minute of the match against Slovenia, he elbows a player in the face. This is an act worthy of a red card. I know, Slovenia did deserve it, especially when you look in hindsight at the way the match went down, but the US fans refuse to look at any sort of flaw that Dempsey has. Instead fans see a rogue, a pretty boy. I call bullshit! He wasn't really that influential in any match. He tried to play in several matches as if he was a striker when he pretty much sucked as much as a striker as he did as a midfielder. And speaking of the strikers, where were they in this tournament?! They were nonexistent and were barely able to get a touch on the ball. Donovan played well, also a midfielder, but he wasn't a star. He was able to score one amazing goal in the Algeria match, but if he really is so amazing, why didn't he do that earlier?!
Well, I'm glad I finally got some of that out of my system. And to all those recent football fans (or soccer, whatever), the more you are interested in what happens, the better our players will be. I don't know why this World Cup has created such an impact this time around but I'm very glad it has. I know that it doesn't stop a war, fix the economic crisis, or clean up the gulf, but this has given us something very big to stand behind. Instead of focusing on the negative lately, and there is a lot to be negative about, America has been watching this Cup and cheering on our team. It gives us something to hope for and it gives everyone a chance to dream of something big. If that isn't reason enough to love the World Cup and football, I don't know what is.
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