Would This Be Enough for US Fans?

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Monday night was like something out of a Disney sports movie. After Clint Dempsey scored the 5th-fastest goal in World Cup history to put the United States ahead, the Stars and Stripes were convincingly outplayed for the majority of the match. They seemed content to remain on the defensive end and try and preserve a 1-0 victory. When Ghana finally broke through in 82nd minute, it looked like a prime opportunity to earn 3 points in a difficult group had been squandered. However, just a few minutes later, a pair of unlikely saviors emerged as Graham Zusi’s corner found John Brooks in the box for the game-winning header. The late heroics by a pair of substitutes provided the defining moment for this generation of soccer fans. The question is: would this be enough?

By now, most people have read that the US has better than 60% chance of advancing out of the group stage, according to the Soccer Power Index. In the final two matches, a pair of draws or just one win would practically assure the red, white, and blue advanced to the round of 16, and even a draw against Portugal and a loss to Germany would leave the US as slight favorites to move on. Easy enough, the casual soccer fan thinks. They already won one game, just winning one of the next two, or even getting a draw or two shouldn’t be too much of a problem. However, I have to go against the sage advice of Barbra Streisand and rain on your parade just a little bit here.

Sure, Portugal will be without Pepe, who received a red card in their opening match against Germany, and the Portuguese side looked awful in getting shellacked in that contest 4-0. But don’t you think that will just make them more focused coming into play Sunday? Portugal is still a top-5 team in the world and features arguably the best player on the planet in Christiano Ronaldo (personally, I would still say Lionel Messi, but Ronaldo has his supporters). They know all they have to do is win their next two matches against the US and Ghana and what happened against Germany on Monday becomes irrelevant.

The US may likely be without Jozy Altidore on Sunday, and while Altidore has never lived up to his early promise as a scorer, he’s the only man on the roster with size to play that high forward position Klinsmann built the offense around. Think back on the Ghana match, and aside from the first and last 10 minutes of the match, there were really no quality scoring chances for the United States. With all this in mind, we have to recognize that Portugal is the favorite to win outright on Sunday (with their win option around -167, meaning they’re between a 1.5:1 and 2:1 favorite to win).

Hopefully the Stars and Stripes make this discussion moot with another thrilling victory in the next two matches. But if not, was Monday’s win enough for you? We can count on both hands the number of victories the US has earned all-time in World Cup play, and Brooks’ header was one of the more memorable moments in national sports history. Keeping in mind the US was not favored to advance out of this group coming into the tournament, if they were to lose the next two matches, would the performance be seen as a huge disappointment? Or would you always think back fondly on that one shining moment? The decision is yours and yours alone; give us your thoughts in the comments section.