Image: AFP PHOTO / FRANCISCO LEONG
Last week, I gave my complete list of teams in the World Cup that looked capable of winning it; teams that had comfortably defeated all-comers and never looked troubled. Now each team has played twice, here's an updated list:
France.
Costa Rica.
That, unbelievably, is it. Germany? Battled to a hardscrabble draw on Saturday by Ghana; the game ended 2-2 after one of the most exciting 45 minutes of football seen in the tournament. Netherlands? They stumbled and went behind against Australia before pulling back a win. Italy? Defeated and shut out on Friday by Costa Rica, the surprise new titans of the tournament. Argentina? On Saturday, they could barely beat Iran; its superstar Lionel Messi only came alive to save his side in the 90th minute.
And then came USA-Portugal on Saturday night. Portugal had already been harried and comprehensively taken apart by Germany, but that only made them, and striker Cristiano Ronaldo, more dangerous. Just look at Uruguay â€" dismantled by Costa Rica in their opening game, they and their own superstar, Luis Suarez, came roaring back against England.
But that's not the way the story went. Sure, everything went Portugal's way in the first 20 minutes, with Nani unmarked and the red-clad Portuguese having the run of play. But the USA had grown in confidence since the Ghana match, and after Tim Howard's miraculous goalkeeping saved the first half, the US came roaring back with two in the second, solid goals from Jermaine Johnson and Clint Dempsey.
The underdog storyline was firmly in place, as it had been the whole weekend. The US team seemed hardly able to believe it themselves â€" they were about to advance from the Group of Death, quite possibly in first place, after only two games played. And that's the way it might have been, if Michael Bradley had just been able to keep control of the ball for the last 40 seconds of the match.
Unfortunately, Bradley was the one member of the team who seemed to be consistently panicked in the face of Portugal, while the others seemed to have inherited the preternatural calm of their manager, Jurgen Klinsmann. And so it came to pass that Bradley, with acres of space, was blindsided by Eder, who gave it to Ronaldo, who found Varela, who blasted the ball into the net so fast even Tim Howard seemed spooked.
The US fans don't deserve the hair shirts they've given themselves. This was a stunning performance, especially in the humid jungle atmosphere of Manaus, probably the worst location for a World Cup game yet (and kudos to the referee for stopping the match for a water break for the first time in World Cup history). This is a team that can hold its own against Germany on Wednesday.
But the lesson of the matchup in Manaus is this: sometimes, the underdog storyline only goes so far. Fear happens, mistakes happen, and the presumed proper order of things will not always be denied.
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