USA Advances in World Cup

With odds stacked against them team USA advanced to the knockout rounds of the 2010 world cup.  Landon Donovan knocked in the winning goal to make it 1-0 during the first minute of added time, making it the latest scored goal in USA World Cup history.  With that goal the USA went from possibly being disqualified from the World Cup to now winning group C.  This marks the first time since the first World Cup in 1930 that the USA has won their group.  They will face the runner up of group D, Ghana, on Saturday at 2:30pm.  Hopefully the USA will be able to revenge the loss from the 2006 World Cup when they were knocked out in the first round by Ghana.

The USA had plenty of blown opportunities to score the go ahead goal but missed. The worst being when Altidore shot high on goal from inside the penalty box.  The most painful opportunity though was when the referee decided that Clint Dempsey was offside, replay showed that he was not, and disallowed his goal in the first half.  That marks the second time this World Cup that a referee has stolen a goal from the USA. The picture to the right clearly shows that Dempsey was onside.

Not only did the referee disallow the goal in the first but he had plenty of blown calls in the final minutes of the game.  Dempsey was punched in the face intentionally by an Algeria player but no red card was given.  Since the punch was inside the box the USA should have gotten a penalty kick, which goes in 22 percent of the time, possibly another robbed goal.  Also there was a handball call in the final ten minutes that was clearly not a handball.  But enough about the bad refereeing because the USA still managed to pull out a win  to continue playing on.

On a personal note this was one of the most exciting and enjoyable sports events I have watched in my life on TV.  I have never been a huge soccer fan but this World Cup has pulled me in.  For all the soccer haters out there you don't know what you are missing with the World Cup as well as soccer.