U.S. 2, Mexico 0!
I will admit that watching this on TV was a slight disappointment given that the game was played in the stadium that I pass every day going to and from work. I had looked into getting tickets the week before and even though the cheap seats (and eventually the entire stadium) were sold out, I think I could have still gotten tickets then. Such is my life. Anyhow, as it worked out, I had a fever, chills, coughing, etc. and was not much for moving around anyway so watching the game in my recliner at home turned out to be alright.
Traffic from this event turned my normally 1 hour or so commute into almost 2 hours even with my carpool buddy, Ben, but not even this would dampen my excitement for the game. The only difficulty was splitting my viewing with the new LOST episode (I need a DVR!) but I managed to catch most of the excitement including both goals scored.
This game was radically awesome. Landon Donovan’s goal in the 90th minute had me yelling out loud, much to the displeasure of my wife (Shh! The kids are sleeping!). That game-clinching goal was enough for me to not even get too upset by the cheap shot the Mexican goal keeper threw at one of our boys after getting schooled by Donovan. That goal was amazing though. After his break away Donovan kept looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was close enough to get him but he was way out in front.
I do not care if soccer is the black sheep sport here in the U.S. and I do not care for those soccer snobs who insist that the U.S. is inferior to the Europeans or the South Americans or whatever and how we are lame because we are the only ones that call it soccer, blah blah blah, waah waah waah. Someday when we take the world cup, I will claim true fan status and heap scorn on the fairweather fans that cannot even get excited over wins like this one against Mexico (fairweather fan says “well Mexico is not really a powerhouse these days.”). I just hope that I am not heaping scorn on the fairweather fans from the afterlife.