Despite loss, US should be proud

In professional sports, winning is everything. Teams like the Yankees put forth expectations for themselves that attribute any season that ends in something less than a championship as a complete failure. Winning is the only yardstick by which professional teams are measured by fans, the media and the teams themselves. As a sports fan, I completely agreed with this notion. That is until the 2014 World Cup.Including this year, the United States mens national team has qualified for the World Cup 10 out of a possible 20 times, with their best result coming in the first tournament in 1930, when they finished in third place. The team has qualified for the seven tournaments since 1990, with the best result coming in 2002, when the U.S. lost to Germany in the quarterfinals, 1-0. In other words, the American men have not had much success on the futbol world’s biggest stage.Following an elimination in the first round of the “knockout” stage in the 2010 tournament in South Africa by Ghana, U.S. soccer seemed doomed to forever live in mediocrity. That was until a bright day in July 2011 when the U.S. Soccer Federation announced the hiring of German national Jurgen Klinsmann as the team’s new head coach. Klinsmann was a star player for West Germany in the 1990s, where he won the 1990 World Cup along with playing for several prominent European club teams. Klinsmann then went on to coach the powerhouse German club team Bayern Munich, as well as the German national team in the 2006 World Cup, where the team advanced to the semifinals.With the American team struggling to find its footing among the world’s great teams such as Spain, the Netherlands, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil, Klinsmann was faced with the tough task of making U.S. soccer competitive.According to FIFA rules, players can only play for countries in which they hold citizenship or can “provide a clear connection to that country,” i.e. live there currently. Previously, the U.S. roster consisted only of players who were born and grew up in the country. Klinsmann changed that approach. He began to recruit players from other countries who held American citizenship, including his home country of Germany. He began to look at players who lived and played in countries where the competition level was much stronger than it is in the U.S., hoping to raise the skill level of the team as it prepared to face the world’s best players.Seven out of the 23 players on the World Cup roster hail from countries other than the U.S. Five are from Germany, with the other two from Norway and Iceland. Each player has a parent who is American or the player himself was born in the U.S. Klinsmann was clear with his approach to change the culture of American soccer. These players were named to the World Cup roster over incumbent players such as Landon Donovan (the all-time leading scorer), Charlie Davies, Eddie Johnson and Juan Aguidelo. The only question that remained was would it work?A tough draw in the group stage for the 2014 tournament seemed to undermine any improvement the team had made coming into the tournament. The Americans had to play Germany, which was ranked second in the world, Portugal ranked fourth in the world and Ghana ranked 37th, but who the U.S. had never beaten and who had eliminated the Americans from the previous two World Cups. Their group was dubbed “the group of death,” and experts gave the team absolutely no chance of advancing past the opening three games.The Americans opened the tournament with a thrilling 2-1 win over Ghana, including a goal by Clint Dempsey just 30 seconds into the game followed by the game-winner scored with minutes left by one of Klinsmann’s German-Americans, John Brooks.The U.S. followed that up by falling behind to Portugal early before another newbie, German-American Jermaine Jones, scored the equalizer and Dempsey gave the Americans the 2-1 lead late in the game. Suddenly the team nobody gave any chance was within minutes of qualifying past the group stage. With just seconds left, however, Portugal tied the game, and the Americans were forced to wait until the final group match against Germany to qualify to the next round.Needing just a win or a tie against Germany to move on, the Americans fell to a much superior German squad, 1-0. However, with Portugal’s 2-1 win over Ghana, the U.S. found themselves moving on to the knockout round, surviving the “group of death.”The U.S. faced off against Belgium in the Round of 16, eventually losing the match, 2-1, in extra time despite a spectacular record-setting performance from goalie Tim Howard, who saved a record 16 shots in the match.Although fans and players were clearly and rightfully disappointed with the abrupt and early end to the World Cup adventure, there was plenty to be proud of. The team for the first time beat Ghana, dominated a Portugal team that was ranked fourth in the world and held a tournament-favorite German squad to only one goal after they had scored 36 goals in their qualifying matches.The Americans were one of two teams to emerge from the most difficult group in the tournament, a feat they had been given a less than 15 percent chance of accomplishing. After decades of soccer futility, the U.S. is finally headed in the right direction and is on the doorstep of being a real contender at future major tournaments.While Germany, Brazil, Argentina and the Netherlands enjoy their success in the 2014 tournament, they had better take care of business now. Come World Cup 2018 there’s a new player in the game and they’re looking to make a run — a very deep run.