Last week, when the United States kicked off their Confederations Cup campaign on Monday against Italy, I was forced to follow along through whatever means necessary, as I was chained to my desk here at my maddeningly frustrating job. Streaming video, while technically available, doesn't do well on computers built in 1997, and I simply couldn't stand the start-and-stop version of the match I was getting.

So it was Twitter, a match cast, and whatever audio of the call that I could find. I didn't exactly get to see it all while at work, but I managed to track with what was going on. Unfortunately, it wasn't good.

Thursday was the same story; scrambling for a working continuous feed, following along through Twitter, and attempting to not pull my hair out while the US failed miserably against Brazil. To say I was scared off of the workday watch might be a little extreme, but I certainly wasn't looking forward to my next foray. I'd been burned twice, burned bad, and I wasn't sure it was really worth the effort.

Nor did I expect I would have to go through it again, at least not until the World Cup next year, and since I plan to be independent of this crappy, crappy place by then, it might not even be an issue. With the US playing what was supposed to be their final group match on Sunday, I thought I'd be watching their last Confed Cup action from the comfort of my couch, with no midweek and midday match in their or my future.

Shocker of shockers then, when they not only whooped Egypt 3-0, but the Brazilians did them a favor and knocked off the defending World Cup champions 3-0 as well. Suddenly, I'm staring down the barrel at another workday of following along as my beloved National Team plays a match thousands of miles away while I (pretend) to work. Burned twice or not, I'm ecstatic I get to give it another go.

Maybe this time will be different. Maybe, even if they lose, I'll be scrambling to track down information about a game in which the Americans are playing well. Maybe there's even a teeny tiny minuscule chance that they might pull off a massive upset, and end Spain's record winning streak in the process. If that's not worth a return to the fire of workday watching, I don't know what is.

By the way, I may try a MFUSA first on Wednesday; since I can't do a liveblog, I'd like to have an open thread here where we can all throw in our two cents on the game as it happens in the comment section. Let me know if you think that's something worth doing. I know it will help me track with the game.