A tie is a win for the US

I’m incredibly relieved that this game is over. The physiological response I have while watching a game like this makes me wonder how I survived Germany 2006. It also makes me wonder how the Poda boys are going to survive in South Africa.

Highlights of our evening:

We cooked and purchased more food than would have been humanly possible for us to eat. Too stressed during the game to eat.

Walking to KFC at 12:30am to get coffee… Yes, KFC. It was the closest available locale open to serve us. Christ knows I do not need to caffeine that late but this was a special occasion. No joke. There is a live band at KFC and the place is bumping. Asia again is a funny place.

I literally can’t breathe everytime England brings the ball across midfield. I yelled kind of a lot, but really tried to keep that to a minimum. Fairly certain our Indonesian friends don’t know what the hell to do with my lunatic behavior while watching. At least they agreed (a neutral party) that the US played well and it was an exciting game.

Some of my thoughts on the game:

Really, really proud of the team’s ability to turn around a pathetic start. At 20 minutes in down 0-1 when Tim Howard got the wind knocked out of him, I swore our tournament was over. Four years ago after allowing an early goal to the Czechs the US team did lose a ton of their steam. But not this time.. we kept the pressure up surprisingly well in the first half.

Tim Howard for President. Period.

Our defense needs work. A lot of work before the next two games. That first goal four minutes in was atrocious. Gooch thankfully -minus blowing his coverage on the goal- played a hell of a game. As did Clint Dempsey (my boyfriend) who got beat up but played his heart out. And Landon Donovan who I hate on 95% of the time made me proud and actually earned some of the hype.

Where was Michael Bradley? He needed to be way more involved in making offense plays happen.

Why did we wait until 10 minutes left in the game to make substitutions? I don’t get it Bob Bradley. We dragged ass in the second half.. fresh legs in the mid-field could have done us some good.

For the FIRST TIME I can remember, I actually felt the officiating FOR THE US was LEGIT! This never, ever ever happens to our team. We always end up with the WORST refs in important games.. I want to give those refs a high five or better yet a Diego Maradona-esque hug and kiss. I hope others witnessed the way he embraced his players after that win. Amazing.

The commentators I had to listen to were British and more biased for the England squad than Fox News talking about Sarah Palin. It was nauseating. If they mentioned that botched goal one more time, rather than praising a tough US side.. I sincerely hope everyone else watching from America got more fair and balanced analysis.

Time for bed, pics to come soon, particularly of the KFC incident.