For its 100th anniversary, South America's national tournament decided to celebrate with a big party in the Estados Unidos. Two of the group stage matches were held in Seattle but I had my eye on the quarterfinal match between the the winner of Group A and runner up of Group B. This was probably going to be Columbia vs Ecuador when I pitched the idea to friends but Columbia choked against Costa Rica and the US team won their group! Kat was traveling so a couple friends joined as the muscle to protect me from hooligans. It brought tears to the eyes seeing 47,000 other soccer nuts screaming marginally written chants. "I believe that we can win"... really? That smells pretty strongly of an inferiority complex.
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| Goooaaaallllllll #1 - Dempsey |
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| Gooooaaaaalllll #2 - Dempsey assist |
Dempsey got the US off to a great start with a goal and an assist. I might even need to reevaluate my opinion of his languid (friendly way to say lazy) style since its hard to argue with the results lately... Ecuador put in a beautiful goal with 15 mins left but despite causing a few heart murmurs, they couldn't find the equalizer. USA 2, Ecuador 1.
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| Victory!! And an upset at that |
We celebrated as only Seattilites can: with some bubble tea and watching the sun set over the Olympics:
If you have a TV or live near someone who does: USA vs Argentina is Tuesday, June 21st at 9pm Eastern/ 6pm Pacific. Argentina is #1 in the world compared to our ranking of 31st (right above Algeria but below England and its farm teams Northern Ireland and Wales). Its probably not going to be close but you do not want to risk looking your soccer mad children in the eye someday and admitting that you missed an epic upset and the US's leap into soccer relevance.
