Movin' on up!

The 1980 US Men’s Olympic Hockey Team, the 2010 US Men’s Olympic Hockey Team, the 2010 US Men’s World Cup Soccer Team?! You better freaking believe it! Did you see it? If not, you could be considered a communist and you better sing “God Bless America” and mean it right now! It really was an amazing result for our boys in South Africa as they defeated Algeria and won their Group to advance to the knockout stage. It was win and in and they did just that, although it didn’t look good for most of the match. The US team missed plenty of opportunities in all sorts of ways, from miss-fired close range shots to hitting the post with a wide open net waiting only a few inches to the right. Also, yet another terrible call by a FIFA referee disallowed a Clint Dempsey goal. (A blatantly incorrect offside call nullified the shot. This one was bad, just not death sentence bad like Koman Coulibaly vs. Slovenia) But the Americans were not to be denied. In the first minute of stoppage time (four were put on the clock), US goalie Tim Howard launched a bomb fifty yards up field to Landon Donovan who passed off to Jozy Altidore. Altidore drove to the right side of the goal where he found Clint Dempsey. Dempsey fired a shot right into the outstretched arms of Algeria’s ‘keeper Rais Magain. The kick was too hot to handle and it bounced right where Donovan had been streaking down the pitch for such an occasion, the rebound. As ESPN soccer announcer said “He put it right in the back of the onion bag!” (Said with an awesome British accent!) Here it is! It may have been Donovan’s easiest goal of his career, but he earned it by setting up the whole play and following through to actually be there to get the rebound and calmly flip it in. As he did a belly slide into the corner and his teammates mobbed him, the United States collectively blew up in celebration and joy. It was the latest goal in US soccer history and it put the Americans in the next round against Ghana (We found out the opponent later on in the day). With tears in his eyes, Donovan later spoke to a reporter and said, “You can’t miss from there.” He sure didn’t! You could see the emotion in his eyes as he became a national hero.
The US has a good chance against Ghana to advance to fútbol’s equivalent of the elite eight. As mentioned in previous posts, huge man crush on Landon Donovan continues!
Compare the heart of the Americans to that of the French. One fought tooth and nail to represent their country. The soccer game meant more to them than just a win. It transcended the individualism and enveloped an entire country. The other whined and moaned and protested against their lame coach, disappointing their homeland and making complete fools of themselves. Which side would you rather be on? The French team has to live with that shame and the Americans are playing with house money and taking in the fame and glory that comes with success. You know when President Barack Obama calls to congratulate that you have something going for you.

GOAL!

The other day I wrote about the net-scorching, Slovenian goalie-decapitating, soccer ball-punishing, holy-crap-that-was-freaking-amazing goal from Landon Donovan in the World Cup. This video isn't the best quality, but it more than serves the purpose...

Here it is!

It may not have been as important as the one he just scored today in extra time against Algeria, but it has been my favorite goal of the World Cup so far, except for maybe this one from Spain's David Villa. You decide. Youtube sucks so therefore so does the quality, but it is sick, trust me!

The Plus Part

Check out my Brazil-supporting Soccer Jack from Jack in the Box. In a word, awesome.

Anyway...

As you all well know, this blog is called BroncoChase's Sports Plus. I have done a whole bunch of sports takes and not very much of the plus part. So here we go: I love movies. I own over 700 of them and when I am not watching some sort of athletic event, you can usually find me snooping around Hastings or Best Buy looking for DVD's and then watching them. What is my favorite you ask? Well, I am not sure if I have a clear cut number one, but there are a few that rank very highly on my scale. They include, The Matrix, Kill Bill (Volume 1 and 2), Snatch, Zombieland, 300, Step Brothers, The Hangover, Porky's, The Boondock Saints (1 and 2), A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather, The Hurt Locker, Avatar, and probably a few others that I can't think of right now. My favorite sports movies are The Blindside, Glory Road, Goal: The Dream Begins, Invincible, The Replacements, Gridiron Gang, and Shaolin Soccer. There are plenty more that I really enjoy, but the aforementioned films are amongst my favorites.

Also, Go USA fútbol! What an amazing game and even better finish! Landon Donovan, I have a huge man-crush on you!

Poetic Justice

A lot has been made about the worst officiating decision in the history of sports. I will not try and re-hash what one Koman Coulibaly enacted upon the United States soccer team and the rest of the nation for that matter. You have got to be freaking kidding me! When that goal was disallowed and the world couldn't figure out why, our nation went into a frenzy. As a basketball referee myself and having made my fair share of not-so-good calls over time, I understand that mistakes happen. So for that, the mistake part, I don't fault Mr. Coulibaly. I do fault him for such a glaring, obvious, ugly, blatent, and disgusting botched call, the worst in the history of sports and at the worst possible time for it to happen. He nullified the greatest comeback in FIFA World Cup history, a needed win by the Americans, and he took away a well-deserved victory by the US national team. Again, people make mistakes, but Coulibaly had more than ample time to think and make the right decision. Even if you blow your whistle and then realize that you shouldn't have called anything as Maurice Edu punts the ball beautifully into the back of the net, just call it an inadvertent whistle and get on with life. Mr. Coulibaly, you may have even saved your career with FIFA if the right decision had been made. Now that is out the window. In a nutshell, he screwed the US soccer team and we are all really upset about it. Good thing the team has moved on and is focusing on Algeria, because the rest of us haven't.
The fact that Americans are so upset in itself is a good thing. It shows that we do care about soccer and are supporting our boys over there in South Africa. Fútbol has potential for more growth on this side of the world and that is what the team needs as they continue to play. Another side note, did you see the goal by Landon Donovan? He nearly decapitated Samir Handanovic, the Slovenian goalkeeper! The guy jumped and hid behind the post, ducking his head, cowering in fear as Donavan burnt a hole through the top of the net. Check it out!
But back to the Algeria thing. As you may have noticed, the title of this post is "Poetic Justice." Here is where that comes into play. The mighty Englishmen couldn't even muster a goal against the Algerians and they ended in a 0 to 0 tie. It's a good thing the goalie didn't screw up this one for Britain (USA-hero and English goalkeeper Robert Green was replaced by David James, also known as Calamity James because he's prone to big mistakes). In other words, the Soccer Gods realized that Coulibaly completely jammed the Americans and made up for it by allowing the English to completely suck against Algeria. Thank you very much. That my friends is a clear cut case of poetic justice (my Spanish literature professor would be so proud of me!) There are a couple of scenarios that would allow the US national team to advance to the knockout stage (round/group of 16), but the only one that matters is this: Beat Algeria. If they do that, they are in. England's tie made that possible. So Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, and the rest, don't lose. Pretty simple after the worst refereeing decision in the history of sports. The call that nullified the goal has been nullified thanks to the incompetence of the English playing as a cohesive unit. Get it done and please don't come home until you do.