You can see what I saw first thing this morning:
"US has much to savor from World Cup run" by John Powers | Globe Staff July 02, 2014
This is why the game has the planet in thrall for one month every four years. This is why billions of television sets are switched on, why tens of thousands of people gather for outdoor viewing parties from Boston to Berlin to Bogota to Busan.
How many people in this country didn’t know that the United States men’s soccer team was playing Belgium in the World Cup on Tuesday afternoon? Anyone who didn’t know soon after the final whistle how close Uncle Sam’s nephews came to pulling off a comeback for the ages in Salvador?
The Americans’ unlikely but unforgettable run in Brazil came to an end with a 2-1 loss to the Red Devils in the second round, but they came agonizingly and admirably close to pushing the Belgians to a penalty-kick shootout, where a victory would have earned the US a quarterfinal date with Argentina. “I think they made their country proud with their performance,” said US coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who won the Cup in 1990 as a player for West Germany....
[It] made for the most dramatic effort by a US men’s sports team on the global stage since the Boys of Winter upset the Soviet Union in Lake Placid in 1980....
You mean this whole thing has basically been about getting the war chants going again without the actual.... wait a minute, troops ARE being sent to Iraq again. All of a sudden I'm sour on $occer!
And the hero-in-defeat keeping his besieged mates in the game?
--more--"
That's another thing about the coverage that is bothering me: the tone seems to be we lost but we won. Maybe it's all the mixed me$$ages, but... sigh!
As for a Argentina, I was wrong but there is a bigger scandal brewing: PEDs amongst the Argentine team.
Ball must have been kicked out of bounds because there are no matches today, although I have basketball tonight.
