Confederations Cup consolation

The U.S. Men’s Soccer team had an amazing run in the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa.  The U.S. team was less than impressive in its games leading up to the tournament, and stunk up the place in its first two games of the Cup.  Against all odds, they won the last game of Group play and advanced to the semi-finals (thanks to goal differentials).

In their semi-final match, U.S. beat Spain, the number 1 team in the world.  Spain had a 35 game unbeaten streak heading into the match, but the U.S. won with a stunning 2 – 0 shutout, easily marking it as one of the biggest U.S. victories of all time.  Unfortunately, in its first-ever FIFA tournament final match, the U.S. gave up a 2 – 0 lead, losing to Brazil 3 – 2.

While they came up short, I was proud of the turn-around they made, and it gave me a bit of hope for next year’s World Cup.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching Tim Howard in goal.  He was easily my favorite of the tournament.

While it was heartening to see the U.S. do well on the world stage, I’m anxious for the day when those types of results are expected.  Donovan’s quote after the game summarized my sentiments well: “We are in the position where we don’t want respect, we want to win.”