The Agony and the Ecstasy

So we had a fantastic match last night - FINALLY. I was SO proud of our boys! Brian McBride had to have stiches, Convey played with blurred vision for the second half after he was elbowed in the face and Donovan was given fluids by IV at the half - but they played with their hearts, and the result was a good one! (Thats not to say that we weren't robbed of a player - neither of those two yellow cards where rightly given to Pope!) I can't even begin to express how junvenile some of those ref's calls where, and I will not go into a tirade about the behavior of the Italian players- the fact that their own Italian newspapers denounced the team as a 'disgrace' this morning is enough for me :)

Having said all of this, we had SUCH a blast last night! The fans were amazing, and Bruce Arena gave an interview saying that it was the best fan show of support outside US soil that the US team has ever had. It FELT like it! We lost our voices and I clapped so hard I burst a vessel in one of my fingers! Its blue and purple today! We kept meeting up with people who we saw at the last match as well- it was a make-shift community kind of feel. I was 'high fiving' people I didn't know and everyone was just hugging each other and screaming after our goal. The groanings and 'boo-ing' and feelings of despair at missed shots and bad calls was just as emotional. The crowd's reactions where really funny! What torment and what fun it is to be a football fan! I loved it, of course, and wouldn't have it any other way.

Hopefully we will do as well against Ghana...

Hope you get to watch a few more of the matches Eif! So much for the Aussies beating Brazil eh? They did put up a valiant effort though!