Direct Kick: Hey world, it's the U.S. knocking

By Denis House

Forty-five minutes. For 45 minutes Sunday, U.S. soccer fans were in heaven, leading powerful Brazil 2-0 in the finals of the Confederation Cup in South Africa. But as euphoric as the first 45 minutes were, the second 45 were heartbreaking, as Brazil stormed back, scoring three goals to take a 3-2 win, thus denying the U.S. its first-ever FIFA-sponsored title.

After two games in the Confederations Cup, the U.S. looked done, losing 3-1 to reigning World Cup champion Italy and 3-0 to five-time champion Brazil. Still, the U.S. weren’t eliminated from competition, but they needed a miracle to advance to the semi-finals.

And they got just that. The U.S. beat Egypt, 3-0, and needed Brazil to beat Italy by the same score, which, surprisingly, happened. That meant the U.S. advanced to face world No. 1 Spain, while Brazil took on South Africa.

Against Spain, keeper Tim Howard came up huge, stopping shot after shot as the U.S. upset the reigning European champions, 2-0, sending shockwaves through the soccer community.

Now, not to take anything away from the U.S. victory over Spain, but I never bought into the Spaniards being the top team in the world. Top five, for sure, but not No. 1. Still, this was one of the biggest wins in U.S. history.

I anxiously awaited the final against Brazil, because I wanted to see if the win over Spain was a fluke, or if the national team were really ready to take that next step.

And for 45 minutes, they indeed looked to be the better team, with goals from Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan giving the U.S. a 2-0 halftime lead. I felt good about the lead, but would have felt better had it been 3-0, After all, this was Brazil, and no lead is safe against the talented Brazilians.

The U.S. found that out, giving up a goal in the first minute of the second half, then two more, the last off a header by Lucio off a corner kick, giving Brazil a 3-2 win and yet another Confederations Cup title.

But in the loss, the U.S., ranked 14th in the world, solidified their spot as probably one of the Top 10 teams in the world. Yes, a win over Brazil would have been something, but I was more impressed by the U.S.’s last three games, against Egypt, Spain and Brazil. That showed me that the U.S. is capable of putting together a string of games against quality opponents, which is something they will need in next year’s World Cup, also to be held in South Africa.

I was also impressed by the two goals from run of play against Brazil. In the past, it seemed like the majority of U.S. goals came off set plays, i.e. corner kicks or free kicks. And Landon Donovan really stepped up in my eyes. I’ve never been sold on him as a striker; I think he plays much better as a distributor, with the ability to score. He seems to make others around him better. He certainly played his heart out against Brazil.

Yes, it was a tough defeat, but if you can get a win from a loss, then this game was just that for the U.S. It showed the rest of the world that we are capable of playing with (and beating) the big boys.

I’m not saying that the U.S. can win the World Cup next year, but they are getting closer and closer with each passing game.

Denis House can be reached at sports@sentinel-echo.com.

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