WORLD CUP REVIEW: BELGIUM-USA and ARGENTINA-SWITZERLAND

Great WC day! Started of at New Buenos Aires, a quaint mom-and-pop bakery in Burbank, rooting for Argentina with a bunch of families I had never met. Café con leche and a few home made pastries to start off the day on a cool place watching the World Cup. It doesn't get much better than that. We made some friends, talked shop and country and enjoyed an exciting game. Not being Argentine I was able to tone down any anxiety about the result, but I ultimately enjoyed the last minute goal by De la Virgen on yet another masterful run by The Sheriff. The place went bananas and I loved it. Argentina deserved to win, played better, played more, had more chances and sought to score with resolve. I liked the tough defense and deep plays (De la Virgen is la leche). Goalie is iffy but Switzerlandia did not do enough to really deserve better. I don't dislike their team, but Argentina was better. 

Then we met with my fellow Silverbacks at The Morrison to watch US-Belgium. Fun gathering with some of my teammates, although the visual quality in the place wasn't great (few and far screens). The atmosphere was good but you can tell the US still has a ways to go in soccer. Twenty Argentines made more noise than 200 hundred Americans rooting. It's a long shot from where it used to be for sure, but with the kind of crowd there was at Morrison the place should have been ROCKING!!!. There was excitement and some cheering but given the occasion I missed some good, old-world romping and screaming at the screens. I think a lot has to do with the fact that many people that turn out don't know the game well. Perhaps it's more cultural, although I don't think that's the reason since fans can get really crazy watching pigskin football, for example. At any rate, it was a fun time, except for the US loss. They played very hard, with great team-oriented sacrifice but that's not enough at this level. Belgium massacred Tim Howard with shots (he totally earned a raise at Everton!) and the US just didn't have enough football in the midfield to sustain a credible attack throughout the game. The last moment goal was fantastic and they still had a chance to tie it, but like Spaniards say: tantas veces va el cántaro a la fuente que al final se rompe (so often goes the jug to the fountain that it ends up broken). That's what happened, and Klinsmann's boys didn't have time to fix it. 

I still see a bright future for US soccer. Most of these guys will be back for the next WC and the talent pool keeps growing and getting better. TV, media and casual fans are catching on. Russia 2018 could be a whole different story.