Archive June | Jenny’s Blog

Archive for June, 2006

The US Soccer Team Made Us Proud

Saturday, June 17th, 2006 | | No Comments

Today was an inspiring day in the world of soccer. The United States played Italy in the World Cup, and desperately needed to play well to be able to move on to Round 2. Whatever words of advice coach Bruce Arena told them seemed to have worked. They were a different team from the one that played the Czech Republic on Monday. They went out fighting, and made our nation proud.

Brian McBride received an elbow to the face from Italian Daniele De Rossi, which split open his cheek, and required stitches to close. He had blood streaming down his face, but still managed to come back and play for the rest of the game. (De Rossi received the first red card of the game for that stunt.) Pablo Mastroeni, of the US, received a red card for a slide tackle. It was an unbelievable call on the ref’s part - a yellow card, perhaps, but certainly not the red that was given. Then, minutes into the second half, Eddie Pope received his second yellow card, which translated into a red card, and he was sent off the field. The United States was playing 2 players down, while Italy was playing down 1.

The United States gave everything they had, overcoming fatigue, exhaustion, and frustration to hold Italy to a 1-1 tie. DeMarcus Beasley scored a goal in the second half to put the US ahead 2-1, but unfortunately, McBride was offsides, and it was called back.

Despite a horrible ref, injuries, and playing 2 men down, the US managed to hold on to their tie, and show the world that they know how to play soccer. They made us proud.

As a side note: another inspiring moment of the day was team Ghana. They managed to beat the Czech Republic, 2-0. Ghana played with heart, and it was an exciting game to watch. Hopefully the US will be able to hang onto their momentum and beat Ghana on Thursday, when the two teams meet.