Ok, folks, it’s showtime! Now, to see if it’s fluke or reality.
Dempsey scores!!!
And Brazil is trailing for the first time in the tournament! I hope they can keep this up.
Good ball in, and enough of a touch to wrong foot the keeper… then the SA video feed gets interrupted, so I turn to the Dope while listening to the commentary in Sotho…
It definitely gave them some spirit. They’re looking pretty good right now. I figure is they can keep it this way, the whole second half will be 11 men behind the ball.
Holy. Crap.
Look, I’ll be blunt - after I wasted a day off to watch the second match the only thing going through my head was “Czech Republic 2006, where we excelled in passing backwards”. We got into the semis on a huge fluke. But the Spain match …good god, we looked like a different team (would it be too snarky to say “like a real team”?), and so far in this match we do as well.
75 minutes until the fat lady sings and, while I expect a dirge in the end (I mean, c’mon…), it’s incredibly rewarding to not be embarrassed by our performance in the latter stages of this tournament.
Well bloody hell! Awesome break-away from the USA! Brazil themselves would have been happy with that (then again, they’d probably be happy with a tap in right about now)…
2-0
WOO!!!
Did you guys see that?
Donovan!!!
That was a great second score!
USA 2, Basil 0!
Eventually I’m going to have to say something nice about an Everton player.
ESPN swapped it from 2 to 1. So I missed the first goal during church as it wasn’t taped. Jerks.
But that second was amazing. Where has this team been?
From BBC live text:
Half time. Up 2 - 0. Who woulda thunk it?
I don’t quite know what to say.
Amazing. This is NOT the same team that played the first two games. It can’t be.
2 - 0 over Brazil. C’est incredible!!! 
:eek:
ETA: I think we will need a third goal to win.
EATA: God am I tired of Messi’s shoes and the “spark”. :mad:
So what’s the key here?
Y’all can see the mistakes we’re making, particularly with poor passing/communication. Are we being underestimated (the other side not capitalizing on those errors)? Is it just because we have a killer defense?
The goalkeeper certainly deserves a fruit basket… or something…
See post #232. 
Bob Bradley DOES have a brain! Brilliant game strategy. Don’t even bother to contest a midfield battle you know you can’t win. Let Brazil’s wingers do whatever they want. Then dominate the middle-back by heading out any passes in. Allow them to shoot from distance cuz Howard’s got that. Then score on counters and set-plays.
Bravo Bradley!