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USA-Algeria: Landon Donovan's golden goal in the World Cup
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GoogleAt the end of the United States-Algeria World Cup match on Wednesday (June 23), play-by-play announcer Ian Dark remarked that Hollywood couldn't have scripted it any better.
Which is maybe true, but for the sake of American soccer fans' collective blood pressure, maybe the next game will be something less of a nail-biter.
Facing a win-or-go-home situation in Group C, the United States took just about as long as it could possibly take before Landon Donovan scored on a rebound in stoppage time to give his team a 1-0 victory and a win in the group. England also won Wednesday, beating Slovenia 1-0 to earn a spot in the round of 16.
After seemingly endless chances to score -- including a goal by Clint Dempsey that was disallowed on a questionable offside call -- but nothing to show for it, the U.S. looked like it was headed home. Then a save by goalkeeper Tim Howard started a break that Donovan eventually finished.
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This was SUCH a great game! Maybe the sport will finally take off stateside now!
Dempsey was offside for the disallowed goal, although it was close. With that said, USA definitely deserved their win. For the amount of chances they had they could have won by 3 or 4. An Algeria win would have been harsh.
Keep dreaming nike soccer girl. No sport that goes backwards to advance will ever make it in the US.
Wow Brad, what a arrogant thing to say...Here's an FYI, the U.S. vs England match-up on Univision/ESPN/ABC averaged more viewers then the Celtics/Lakers game 3...and that was telecast at 6 in the morning. So guess what? It is catching on as ratings for the cup are up big across the board. So before you make an *** of yourself with these type of comments here is a suggestion "Think first"
Watched whole game, thought USA was gonna get screwed again. But they kept coming back with amazing shot after shot after shot. They deserved the win, and I'm glad they got it. Here's to hoping they beat Ghana
Dear Brad,
You must not watch any of the quintessential American sports at all. American Football, the ball gets sent back to the Quarter back so that he may pass it forward. No, yes! Ice Hockey that ball goes everywhere, whilst armoured players try to send each other back to the stone age. I could go on, but your comments are just to silly to get my knickers in a twist over. Soccer or real football, isn't to every-bodies taste. But the passion and tension sold by its players and fans should not be so easily dismissed.
How are MLS ratings in this country? Every 4 years people get pumped up to watch the World Cup myself included. I am just saying that soccer won't surpass football basketball or baseball as our national pasttime. I love soccer, I just don't think the masses will accept it as they do with other sports. And as far as going backwards, I meant a good offensive attack requires the ball to go back to mid-field.
To Brad. When you are watching basketball, baseball or grid in the US, you are watching the best players in the world. The best soccer players are in Europe so it makes sense that you don't like MLS. I was born and bred on soccer but it is a torture for me to watch our domestic league here in Australia.
I keep seeing comments like soccer will never be big in the US. As a south american that grew up in Europe and now lives here i can see that because here you have more options, football, hockey, basketball and all these sports provide lots of scoring. Soccer is more of a patience game. and they say America likes soccer only every four years. Great, I would hate nobody caring for the US team. They need our support, they have been great this year, actually my heart is a little weaker because of them and also they are getting respect from the rest of the world
USA sports fans unprecedented interest in the ABC-ESPN/Univision telecasts of the World Cup has to related to the Networks promotional efforts!
Everyone is talking World Cup.
It could be argued that if Soccer received this type of coverage on a routine basis, USA fans would come to enjoy the sport.
The USA is going to the big dance on Saturday and it will be interesting to see the TV Ratings.