Why Not Us?

If you care nothing for football (soccer) just humor me for a minute.

My good friend Josh Foor recently wrote a wonderful piece about why the USA will never win the World Cup (http://thevoxveritas.com/). We actually collaborated a bit on the piece but i want here to write a counterpoint - Why Not Us?

My son thinks we might win the World Cup. He is six. I let him stay up until midnight (China time) to watch the USA match tonight. I'm glad I did, he was just as into it as i was. But maybe Keegan is right?

Before you start calling me crazy and questioning my soccer knowledge please hear me out. The match against England (whom SI picked to make the final) was well played and most importantly we got the result we wanted - a draw. Admittedly we played awful in the first half against Slovenia. That happens, it is a long tournament (Italy drew with us in the last tournament in the first round). But did you see the 2nd half? We scored (what should have been) 3 goals and looked dominant. Tonight, against Algeria, we played superbly. We did everything right for the first 90 minutes except score a goal. Bradley was excellent. Dempsey, Donovan, and Altidore will get chances no matter who we are playing. Demerit was possibly the man of the match at right back. Enough review, let's look ahead.

Our next match will be against D2, which will be decided tonight (China time). This could be either Germany, Ghana, Serbia, or Australia. I'm hoping its not Germany, but even they looked less-than-stellar against Serbia. So lets say it is Ghana. If we can beat them we will face the winner of South Korea vs. Uruguay. If we win that match we are in the Semifinals.

There are some real good teams in this tournament. Spain, despite their opening loss to the Swiss are great. Brazil is Brazil. Argentina has found it at the right time. The Dutch are always dangerous. However, we don't have to beat all of them, only 2 of them. And they all have their flaws. If i had to mark Messi I would take Bradley as much as anyone else in the world. We beat Spain last summer. Italy is a mess. France ain't winning it. Germany lost to Serbia. I know, I know, now I'm just trying to talk myself into it. But don't miss my point, this is a funny game where anything can happen and not always the best team wins (Swiss vs. Spain). Plus, our back line and goalkeeper are playing as well as anyone in the world right now.

I'm not saying we are going to hoist the Cup, I'm just saying that us USA fans need to begin rooting for our team knowing that it is possible. You may still call me crazy, but someone has to win this thing, so why not us?