Speaking Ill of the Dead

Saturday, June 26, 2010 | View Comments
SOCCER/FUTBOL WORLD CUP 2010 OCTAVOS DE FINAL USA VS GHANA Action photo of USA team, during game of the 2010 World Cup held at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg, South Africa./Foto de accion del equipo de USA, durante juego de la Copa del Mundo 2010 celebrado en el Royal Bafokeng Stadium de Rustenburg, Sudafrica. 26 June 2010 MEXSPORT/OSVALDO AGUILAR Photo via Newscom

I know what you're thinking.


Let it all out Jason, let the disgust be your guide.


Maybe I should. Bob Bradley certainly made poor lineup choices today, our strikers can still not buy a goal for all their industry, and several American players endeavored to make Ghana look like world beaters. Which they're clearly not.


But I can't do it. I can't find the bitter seed in my soul, the one that should rightly be taking root, fed by such an inglorious exit. The glory of Wednesday, canceled out by this? An unforgivable turnover by Ricardo Clark and slack defending on a long ball in extra time? A nation united...for nothing.


I'm not bitter. Really. I'm simply spent. Maybe the ups and downs of this team over the past four years, from the highs of the '07 Gold Cup and beating Spain, in the same country they'll make hasty tracks from tomorrow, to the lows spread across the breadth of the time line has combined to make me oddly numb. I believed, for what it's worth, because the highs gave me reason to; but deep down I knew their frailties, that losing Davies and having our best defender laid up for so long was going to make it all too difficult, and that the task to go beyond this round was a mountain they were ill-equipped to climb.


Bob Bradley is a solid coach who made a few mistakes tonight. He was, however, always working with a talent pool whose depth was measured in inches rather than feet. Donovan and Dempsey are solid players, better than a host of nations possess, but they alone couldn't conjure victory out of nothing. A suspect defense never evolved from nightmare-maker. No striker in the program has proven a damn thing at this level.


It ends with a whimper, "comeback" from one goal down nothing more than a mirage, casting us down from the heavens like so many Icaruses. Ghana wasn't supposed to be the sun in this story, shouldn't have been the ones to prove our wings nothing but wax and feathers. Nevertheless, we didn't really belong there anyway; this is cold justice for a team that simply wasn't good enough. Capable of the magical, they were never as good as we wanted them to be, but were just good enough to make us believe.


I hope all of those people that signed up for the U.S. National Team magical bus ride aren't already pulling the cord in a desperate attempt to get off at the next stop. I hope they understand that pulling for a team like this, made up of equal parts inspiration and disappointment, is a worthwhile commitment. We can't stop being fans because it's hard; the glories to come are never as sweet when your finger is hovering over the "opt out" button. Stick with it, you'll be glad you did.


Soccer fans that are also USA fans will now turn their eyes to the rest of the tournament. Some of them might have a second team to get behind, or will arbitrarily pick one from the group in the quarterfinal display case. For USA fans that are also soccer fans, or for whom supporting their country is part of their total passion for the game, the bits of our vision saved for international soccer (peripheral for now), will turn to the next four year process. Names like Diskerud, Lichaj, Gonzalez, etc. are already beeping brightly on the radar, and the younger members of this group will be hawkishly watched as they resume their club adventures. Four more years for Holden to get better. Michael Bradley seems to be on a rocket ship to European stardom. The saga of Charlie Davies will resume after its sad detour. There are others I'm forgetting.


As for who coaches them going forward, that will be the million dollar question. The fans need somewhere to direct their anger, and Bob Bradley will be marched up against the wall. For everything he got right, he got enough wrong for the issue to be salient; original expectations matter little when the evidence of 120 minutes stands in accusation. Bradley's future at the helm will need to be addressed. After backing down and buying in myself, I'm ready for a change. Provided it's the right one, of course. I'll pass on Klinsmann.


Today was bad. They saved their worst ninety minute performance for last, and were punished for it. I wish I could rail about it being "unacceptable." I wonder if the release of righteous anger would make me feel any better. I doubt it.


I'm not hunting for scapegoats today. It's over, and that's all.
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