USA Soccer in Confederation Cup 2009

Sometimes you would rather be lucky than good. USA Soccer was thoroughly displaced by two juggernauts of football this past week in their draw at the Confed Cup, by losing to Italy and Brazil. The only possible way for them to advance to the next round was to beat a poor Egyptian team by three goals, and hope that Brazil would beat Italy by three goals. Miraculously, beyond description and among the most odd and weird things, it happened exactly that way, with 3-0 games in each, and America advancing.

And earlier this week, I predicted Egypt would win, 2-1. Now that I've eaten my words (not really, it was a good bet that USA would lose), I have to post (and laugh at) this quote from an American player and veteran:

"All of the critics in America who said we were no good after losing to Italy and Brazil, let's see what they say now," Michael Bradley said.

Here's what I say: "you're no good."

Come on. It's great that you have a little spirit, but simply because you (#14) beat a bad Egyptian (#40) team, and Italy (#4) played a horrible game against Brazil (#5), you advanced in a tournament to play the #1 team in the world, Spain. Do you really think you deserve to advance instead of Italy to whom you lost? Doesn't make sense, but tie-breakers rarely do. But this is exactly why you are fighting to earn a spot in the next World Cup 2010. It's not a guarantee that you will qualify. Michael Bradley, there won't be a Brazil to help you make it to the next round. And like so many Cups past, we'll see that once again, USA is no good at football.