Soccer Saturday

Taking a break from the rest of the crises in the world--we will celebrate Soccer Saturday today.

USA Soccer is in the round of 16 for only the 3rd time since 1930.

There is a good chance they will move on for another game--but this is the elimination round and some of the powerhouses in the world are missing: Italy and France for instance.

Regardless of the outcome later today--this has been a great run. Winning the group over England and playing hard against every team.

For those of you who don't understand the extra motivation that Team USA has today for the game, I provide this excerpt from a New York Times article about what happened during the 2006 World Cup and last time these two teams met:

Only four years ago, these two teams met in what amounted to an elimination game at Germany ‘06, a final group-stage match both teams needed to win in order to be certain of advancement, especially the Americans, who had only 1 point going in. But they were beaten, 2-1, by a Ghana team that defied all the tired cliches about African naivete on the international stage.

The USA did not make the round of 16 as a result of that game.

So there is a measure of revenge--which hopefully will provide our team with that extra motivation to not let it happen again.

So win or lose--

U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A Soccer Rules!