Red, White, and Through: Everything You Need to Know About “The Best Loss Ever”

First off, disclaimer: if you’re at all humored by my attempt in writing an article regarding sports, well, so am I. (Shockingly enough, playing the game of soccer with C(atholic)Y(outh)L(eague) from 1st to 8th grade didn’t exactly qualify me as an expert in the world of fútbol…)

#tbt

So we lost…but we actually kind of won. And now we’re calling it, “The Best Loss Ever”. 

Wait…huh?

Okay, so for those of us who are not entirely soccer-savvy and spend most of our summer sports-watching on Wimbledon matches with cups of tea in our hands and simultaneously yelling at our TVs in British accents, (totally not talking about myself here…) this may seem a bit confusing.

Here’s the situation: In the world of the people who can kick better than you, (AKA…everyone playing in the World Cup…even the Germans) there are  “knockout rounds.” 

Oh please, everyone gets what a knockout round is. Basically it’s like play-offs, right? Teams play each other and eliminate each other until there are only two left standing. Those who lose go home; winners advance.

Not so fast.

Once advanced to the knockout round, there are also these strange, confusing things called, “groups” and sometimes…even if ya lose…you still win. For the USA on early Thursday afternoon, this couldn’t have proved to be more than accurate

Lemme break it down for ya:

In each group (we are in Group G), the top two teams (based on points) are the ones who advance in the games. If there’s a tie, then the first tiebreaker = goal differential.

If the teams remain tied (at that point), then the tiebreakers will be based on the:

1) total goals scored

2) total points obtained in matches between the teams playing

3) goal differential in matches between the teams playing, and

4) total goals scored in matches between the teams playing.

If the tie can’t be broken, FIFA will perform a draw.

Make sense? 

GOOD!

This year, Rio is bringing the best out of Team USA. Despite going down 1-0 to Germany, USA still advances to the next round thanks to that win by Portugal over Ghana, which was played at the same time.

All attributed to that powerhouse Cristiano Ronaldo who scored the match-winning goal in the 80th minute. (Pause) 

But hang on…

Yep. That’s the girlfriend. 

ANYWAYS:

The USA has battled with three teams that were all expected to be really competitive, labeled as, “The Group of Death” by many Americans. SO that makes us winners. In the words of the commentators during the game, “the US fought until the very end. It was a well-fought loss.” As strange as this sounds, it’s true. 

Despite Coach Klinsmann’s previous comments that it was “unrealistic” for the US to win the World Cup, he is now saying, “the sky’s the limit.” We’re glad you saw the light, bro. Klinsmann achieved his goal of making it out of the Group of Death, and now, no matter what the outcome, he can be excited that Team USA is truly taking off.

So we advance through: to battle Belgium. Pull out all things red, white, and blue (and avoid eating chocolate) and catch the game 4:00 EST on ESPN Tuesday, July 1st!

And yes, I Believe That We Will Win. 

‘Merica.

Photos provided by the author

Be sure to follow HCSMC on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!