Soccer Is Still the World's Game, For Now

RUSTENBURG, South Africa -- The Man of the Match on Saturday night in a field in the shadow of the Pilanesberg Mountains in northern South Africa was a 20-year-old, Andre Ayew, the French-born son of Ghana's greatest soccer player, Abedi Pele. He hemmed up the greatest U.S. Soccer player, Landon Donovan, for most of the match and last summer sparked the Under-20 Ghanaian squad to the first World Cup title, the U-20, in the history of Africa.

Patriotic declarations of America's arrival as a World Cup contender were a bit premature.

One of Ayew's teammates who aided him in dashing, by a 2-1 score, some of the wild dreams about U.S. Soccer that mushroomed the past few days was Samuel Inkoom, a 20-year-old who played 113 minutes as one of the defenders who blanked the U.S. in open play. The Stars and Stripes' lone goal was a penalty kick by Donovan.

Ayew and Inkoom's side included five other players no more than 21 years old. The U.S. team featured one, 20-year-old Jozy Altidore.

It was feared that the U.S. might meet mighty Germany as the knockout rounds of the World Cup commenced Saturday. It was suspected the Yanks caught a break against Africa's lone first-round survivor and would be fueled by revenge after losing to the Black Stars in the 2006 World Cup.

That was foolish thinking basted in American arrogance that neither U.S. Soccer officials nor its players, to their credit, expressed. They know what they're still up against in the rest of the world. As much as they've made a down payment on being a world-class soccer competitor, they are still a long way from producing the highest dividends.

Soccer is still the rest of the world's game. The U.S. is just living in it.

"Because it wasn't Argentina or Spain," U.S. keeper Tim Howard said afterward, "don't be fooled."
That talk about it having some plucky American spirit that never gives up was jingoistic jabbering. If that is what will carry it to fame it'll never get there.
Donovan and company weren't upset by Ghana. Once may be a fluke, but twice in back-to-back World Cups is irrefutable evidence.

Donovan and company didn't underachieve in this tournament. Most of the soccer aficionados predicted that they would escape the group round of three games and into the do-or-die portion, and they did.

The Yanks didn't do so beautifully with two draws and a last-minute Donovan goal to break a scoreless game with Algeria. They were fortunate that England proved itself to be overrated once again, leaving the top spot in Group C up for grabs.

But to think the U.S. should have walked into this tournament and taken away more than it wound up with was based mostly on the fool's gold they mined with a surprising final appearance against Brazil in last summer's super-friendly competition in South Africa, dressed up as something called the Confederations Cup. The 2010 World Cup for it was the real deal.

This team with the talent it has won't go much further. That talk about it having some plucky American spirit that never gives up was jingoistic jabbering. If that is what will carry it to fame it'll never get there.

The U.S. coach Bob Bradley wasn't his team's problem, although his decision to start Ricardo Clark against Ghana didn't work out as Clark coughed up a ball that led to Ghana's early first goal.

But if Bradley is going to coach a conservative style early on to allow he and his team, as he said several times during this tournament, to feel how the game was developing, then he better have some spark to get the team back in the game quickly if it falls behind early. That has been this team's recipe for failure.
Blackistone in S.A.

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National Columnist Kevin Blackistone is on the scene in the home of World Cup 2010.
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Indeed, if there was one thing Team USA was exposed as lacking Saturday night, and throughout this tournament, it was dynamism. It still doesn't have that one player, no matter Donovan's heroics and scoring records, who makes you sit on the edge of your seat when he has the ball on his boot. Altidore could be that player one day. He is the only player in red, white and blue who is as young as Ayew and Inkoom and was the youngest striker in this World Cup, his first. But if he scores in the 2014 World Cup that will be a first, when he is 24 years old.

The most exciting player Saturday may not have been the Man of the Match, but a 24-year-old named Asamoah Gyan, who raced past two would-be U.S. defenders to put a left foot into a ball and over Howard's outstretched hands for what was the winning goal three minutes into extra time. It didn't come as a surprise. He seemed to beat the U.S. side to balls all game long but just hadn't been fortunate enough to strike one past Howard.

If Altidore doesn't become the U.S.'s Gyan, maybe Tristan Bowen, the prodigious 19-year-old with Major League Soccer's L.A. Galaxy can be in four years. He is a forward, like Altidore, and two years ago became the first player in MLS history to be signed directly from his club's youth academy.

Then there is Luis Gil, a 16-year-old midfielder signed by Real Salt Lake who is promising enough to have attracted interest from an English Premiership club as prominent as Arsenal.

The faster those youngsters can infuse the U.S. side with their talent, the better the U.S. chances will be to beat Ghana if it meets it again or any other team on the come. Until then, the U.S. will be mere World Cup field fodder, as Ghana reminded again so many miles away.