World Cup

With rain pouring down on us, Laurel and John and I ran to the SUV of our German friend, Jens. With the windows fogged and our clothes soaked, we pulled up to a shop of appliances and construction equipment. We were on a mission, a mission to find power by any means necessary. It was still early morning on Saturday the 26^th of June, the same day the U.S. was scheduled to play their round of sixteen game in the World Cup against Ghana. And, of course ours and the surrounding provinces in the Ecuadorian rainforest would be without electricity for the entire day. Occasionally the local power company has to do some upgrades and they chose the day the U.S. plays in a once-in-four-years-if your-lucky soccer match. We needed a generator.

We also needed a location with Direct TV as opposed to standard cable. Suffice it to say the bunny ears wouldn't work either – the antenna stations didn't have electricity. After canvassing the entire town we finally found a guy named Guido who runs a hostel called La Posada (used to be called Yutzus-Dos) who not only had Direct TV but also paid his bill last month (unlike Michael at Hostel Limoncocha, another one of our German friends) and allowed us to hook a generator up to his electrical box. Guido was awesome! This guy not only let us hook up the generator but also set up his nicer TV outside on the patio with chairs and beers. The twenty American tourists staying there gave their local Peace Corps Volunteers a round of applause for getting this set up. Finally, game time.

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So we didn't win. Did anyone expect us to? Let's be honest here, the U.S. has some – some – good players but there were too many glaring flaws to expect them to beat Ghana let alone a team like Brazil or Spain.


Bradley, Edu, Bocanegra and Dempsey look on after a tough loss to Ghana

The mark of great teams is ball control, creativity and at least one world class player that can better a double or triple team – Argentina might have two guys like that in Messi and Tevez – amazingly exciting to watch. The U.S. has some really fast guys and an aggressive attacking posture but we were consistently bullied at mid-field and had consistent mental lapses on defense. Coach Bradley was rumored to have adopted a long-ball strategy because he didn't have faith in our players' ability to play more measured, controlled attacks (he may have been right). Some teams can stretch the field and live off of set plays and a few explosive players scoring in a flash but very few win World Cup games with this strategy. Italy did it in 2006 because of amazing defense and an ill-timed head butt by France's captain at a critical point in the finals (also, all their goals, I believe, came from penalty kicks). England subscribes to a faster striking style as well but what have they done internationally lately? No, the prevailing style, the mark of excellence, is the ability to control the ball and score creatively a la Brazil, Argentina, Spain, the Netherlands, and in this World Cup, Uruguay. I wonder if there's a strategic change on the way for Team USA.

That day we weren't the only Americans tuned into the game. Apparently it was also the most watched men's FIFA World Cup game in history. Fifteen million people watched it in the U.S. with San Diego leading all media markets in viewership. Yay San Diego! As many people watched the World Cup games as the NBA Finals – which says something when the WC games are on in the mornings and the NBA Finals are on during prime time. Of course it still did not equal the ratings for the Women's World Cup – a world athletic event we actually win at occasionally.


Bradley, stoic as usual.


The next World Cup will probably not feature Donovan or Dempsey, two guys who've led our team the last two attempts, for better or for worse. I'm really disappointed with Coach Bradley's decision to put Findley in at forward and leave Dempsey on a wing. With Dempsey and Altidore up front we could have been a much scarier scoring threat. Next time around Donovan will either not be playing (at 32 years old) or will be ineffectual. I liked what I saw in two younger guys Maurice Edu and Benny Feilhaber, and hopefully Charlie Davies will be able to play after he heals from his recent car accident. Mostly, however, we'll need to adopt a strategy that involves better midfield play and we'll need to manifest some better defensive talent. Strategies aside, our one win against a small North African country aside, all the manufactured hype of the U.S.'s supposed chances this time aside, now what?


Good looking team.

We look forward to the Women's World Cup next summer in Germany, that's what. Our women are currently ranked number one by FIFA and if we can beat two-time defending champs Germany in their own country it could be bigger than a Super Bowl. No seriously, the cool thing about being an American during World Cup, besides making fun of fake pansy divers from France, is rooting for that other country you're a fan of because your family actually hails from there. I intend to root for Germany (I'm half German and my other sanguine rooted half, Ireland, got robbed by Thierry Henry's hand ball in the qualifying rounds) and I'll admire the abilities of Lionel Messi (it's a shame he only came off the bench in 2006 because he was also the best player on any pitch then, as now).


Messi and Tevez, great one-two combo for Argentina.

It's also appropriate to root for any other countries where you've lived in the past. I'd even say an extended vacation would qualify, say a hazy month in Jamaica, or a long hiking trip in the Swiss Alps. For us, obviously, we are fans of Ecuador, but that fandom will have to wait at least another four years. We've heard that the last World Cup was a much bigger deal here (Ecuador actually qualified that time). But we're still pretty excited to be in a country that truly appreciates the sport and this whole month hasn't disappointed. People take off work, drink beer in the morning, sing in the streets – it's actually a bit like Carnival.

As for the power outage, the lights, fans, and TVs fired back up just in time for the Germany England game the next morning. Those Germans have some real sway around here. Watching the Germans scream and hug after every goal, en route to a thorough beat-down of the sport's creators, I was reminded of the heights of joy my American friends and I shared when Landon scored that goal in the 91^st minute against Algeria, giving us just one more game of life. If the Padres or Chargers ever won a championship, I imagine that's what it would be like. And that's what soccer does, on the world stage, there's something for nearly everyone. Even one shot, ill fated, with just enough english on it to trickle passed the keeper can cause celebration over a one-one tie against a former colonial overlord. They should do this every year.


Donovan couldn't do it all himself.

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World Cup Observations:

• Japan is pretty impressive. With their public organization abilities they will soon boast the best youth development program to find and train the best talent available and eventually become a consistent contender on the world stage. First they beat us in baseball, now this.
  
• The U.S. needs soccer development programs in places other than the suburbs.
  
• Germany is scary good. Mostly because they are a young team that everyone thought wouldn't have contend until 2014. They may not beat Argentina but they looked pretty impressive against Ghana and England. (Obviously I wrote that last bit before the German dismantling of Argentina. Wow, eight goals in two games against England then Argentina. And, it was the very first game I've ever seen where Messi looked mortal.)
  

• All the South American qualifiers made it out of group play. For real, Paraguay, Chile and Uruguay (the other teams that made it besides the two power houses Brazil and Argentina) could easily be better than England, France and Italy. Who would've thought that would happen back in 2006?
  
• The Netherlands Brazil game was a soccer clinic. More ball control than hernia check-up. Watching the Uruguay vs Ghana game later that day was like watching a local pick up soccer match with drunk Kichwa men. How do they learn this stuff? And, how can we convince our youth it's actually cool?
  
• Teams that didn't deserve to be in the World Cup but got in because of regional qualification tournaments:
  

    1. North Korea

    2. Honduras

    3. Nigeria

    4. France (Also wouldn't have qualified anyway if there was replay in soccer.)

• Teams that should have been invited instead:
  

1. Ireland – Not only because of Henry's hand ball, the Irish should get automatic qualification status every year just because it would help the world economy by way of increased beer sales – kind of like how Americans insist Cinco de Mayo is a big holiday.
   
2. Coatia – Currently ranked number ten in the world by FIFA.
   
3. Russia – Currently ranked number eleven in the world by FIFA.
   
4. Ecuador – Waaaay better than Honduras or North Korea. They actually beat Argentina and tied Brazil during qualifying rounds. And, with the high altitude locations in South Africa, they could have been a surprise, heart-warming Cinderella team. They just don't lose at altitude. Also, it would have been cool for us PCVs in Ecuador.
   

 

• American sports columnists have begun their idiotic, "I hate soccer" rants. For an American sports column that doesn't insist that soccer sucks because it's slow, go here: Bleacher Report and here: Mike Freeman (CBS).
  
• For a hilarious take on the moronic Jim Rome soccerphobe stance go here: The Guardian (UK). I promise this one will knock your socks off.