Only in the World Cup can Hungarian officials make us fear international relations over the last century or so. Only in the World Cup can Michael Imperioli finally become a household name. Only in the World Cup can Bill Clinton and Mick Jagger be united at last.
There’s a part of you, admit it, that saw that and thought the universe has been leading to this moment — creation, evolution, the spoken word, the written word, representative government, song and, finally the commercial enterprises of the mid 20th Century — where Jagger and Clinton would sit together and … well, who knows what they talked about. Who wants to know?
That all of existence survived this pairing is the only evidence I have that the idea is incorrect. That culture was able to continue on is the only evidence that we, as a people, now have too many entertainment options before us.
Imagine if Elvis had sat with John Kennedy at the 1962 World Cup in Chile. See? Entirely different response on every level, thoughtful, visceral and primordial.
Anyway, once again the officiating was spotty. Once again did Ghana win. Once again the depth across the American roster shows itself to be suspect. Once again we can only wistfully say “Close. But not there yet.”
Jozy Altidore is taking criticism, but the man plays an incredible game. You just have to know what you’re seeing. A handful more like him, or a team full of folks built like him, and the U.S. will change the way the game is played. The team, as they are composed to do, have some promise, have fine heart and give great effort, but they are finite. That should take nothing away from what they’ve done here, having demonstrated marked progress over the last few tournaments, but they just aren’t there yet.
There is disappointment in this 2-1 defeat, yes, but ultimately this day was coming. They were escaping too narrowly, having chance favor them even when fair play did not. The notions of spirit and never-say-die are celebrated, iconic and nice for the pathos, but ultimately logos wins out and this team just ran out of the opportunities they needed.
But, oh, how they delighted us.
I hope they gave their boots to their raucous fans, I hope they did. They’d given them everything else.
It is a bitter, brutal game, and for some team still surviving the tournament it will only grow worse.
Only in the World Cup would a showing in the final 16 be simultaneously enough and not enough.
