The 2010 World Cup is in the rearview mirror now. It’s there, and you can look up and catch a glance of it, and smile. And no, things didn’t work out exactly like we’d hoped – but perhaps like we’d [secretly] realistically expected. The car’s continuing down the road. Soon a mere fond memory among a summer of soccer. But before we go around another curve and South Africa twenty-ten disappears from view, let’s take a moment.
A moment to say thank you.
Thank you for keeping us on our toes, for never a dull moment.
Thank you for the goal, and the call, we’ll never forget; Landon Donovan’s stoppage time strike and Ian Darke’s brilliant “Oh, can you believe this?! Goal, goal, USA! Certainly through! Oh, it’s incredible! You could not write a script like this.” *
Thank you for making a ride on the PATH train a little more interesting as a vuvuzela concert broke out on the platform and continued under the Hudson.
Thank you for a collective rage about a stolen win and for redemption via victory three days later.
Thank you for capturing the spirit of American Soccer and of soccer in America. Never say die, fight ’til the end, never give up. A spirit that exists in stoppage time goals and the very late tie. A spirit that exists in the playground game, in the summer nights of play-in-the-street-until-it’s-so-dark-you-can’t-see-your-friends. And a spirit that exists in the fact that while soccer here may never be what most people think of when “football” gets mentioned, it’s not going anywhere. And we’re not going anywhere. Like the very late equalizer and the stoppage time goal, we too will stick around ’til the end. Until the final whistle blows. Until the last tired arms lower their scarf.
Thank you to the for making the rest of the country give a damn about soccer. Even if it was only for a little bit. The rest of us will go on. We’ll keep getting up for the early games, keep wearing our jerseys, keep wearing those ridiculous ‘Uncle Sam’ hats (even if I wish we wouldn’t), keep raising our scarves. And for now, we’ll do it with a heavier heart. But we’ll always be here, waiting for the next late game heroics, the next big save, the next phantom foul – well, that one we could probably do without. We’ll be here, with old friends and maybe a few new ones. Thank you.
*Admittedly, during the ensuing celebration, as all the players piled on top of Donovan – and the corner flag – all I could think was “that flag is going to spring back up and knock someone’s teeth out.” Thankfully, it didn’t happen.
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