USA/Argentina - The Game

(Thanks for the picture Tuohy)

The Men's National Team came into its game against Argentina on Sunday night hoping to ward off suggestions of a shambolic defense and an average midfield all headed by an impotent offense.

What they at least put on was a gutsy, heart wrought performance against at least several pieces of the world's best team. Though the opening 30 minutes weren't promising, Timmy Howard showed every bit of his class and why he was once the starting goalkeeper for Manchester United.

Against any team, Argentina would have its chances and Sunday night was no different. The US defense hung on by a thread at times while at others looked surprisingly confident. Heath Pearce put together an impressive performance while Cherundolo did an admirable job dealing with Senor Messi. Even Gooch and Boca were bearable by their occasionally klutzy standards.

We may never know what left Pablo Mastroeni headed for the showers midway through the second half but I know I'm not the only one that figured the game would die off. The US would inevitably slip up and conceding one or two in the dying minutes as we floundered with a man less on the field.

I believe my words were: "That's the way to kill a friendly game..."

But after weathering a brief spell of pressure, the US actually broke out for some of its best attacking moments of the night and left all 78,000+ fans feeling like we got our money's worth. The US crowd grew its voices with the game and most of us were hoarse by the end from "U-S-A" one too many times.

When Landon Donovan, who in my book was excellent all night, sent Klestjan in on goal only for a deflection to leave the Argentinian goalkeeper helplessly stranded, I almost ended up in the 2nd level.

We all leaned back in agony as a thunderstorm rolled over and the final whistle blew. Breaking a series of US corner kicks and counter attacks in each direction that opened up in time with the rain. It seems incredulous that we were left wanting more, with every belief the US could have walked off with a 1-0 victory against the world's best.



That will wait for another day. Instead, what thousands of fans trekking from all over witnessed was an exciting, if scoreless, game with a final 20 minutes I'll never forget., including one that claimed to have flown back from community building in Affrica early in order to catch the game, When under pouring rain and lightning, all of us USA fans were confident we could bring down Argentina.