It’s fandemonium after historic win
By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports Wednesday, Jun 23, 2010
PRETORIA, South Africa – By the time Landon Donovan had commenced his celebratory slide into forever, the United States’ game-winning, group-clinching, World Cup-advancing 1-0 miracle goal safely in the back of the net, the first American fan had jumped the walls of Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
Another fence and a row of security was all that could keep the swelling ranks of jubilant American fans from joining Donovan in a glorious pig pile. They had charged toward the field because they couldn’t contain themselves. The emotional reaction of wanting to hug a player had, in this magical moment, made sense.
The game had gone to stoppage time. The English were about to win half a nation away. The American dream of World Cup glory was about to be lost in the chilling air.
[Photos: More from the United States’ victory over Algeria]
Then the U.S. broke free on a 4-on-2 break against the Algerians, the kind of numbers advantage that allowed Donovan to pounce on a rebound and slip the game-winner home.
It was pandemonium, real and raw and wickedly satisfying. It was as wild as any American sporting moment you’ll ever see. The USA had an earlier score disallowed by a phantom offside and now this was about to be remembered as the World Cup of referee errors. It was about to be remembered for bitter disappointment and blown chances.
Only no one had given up. Not on the American side, where missed chance after missed chance appeared to only strengthen their resolve that something, anything, would happen. Not on the USA bench, where coach Bob Bradley made offensive-minded substitutions, acknowledging a tie was as good as a loss and, if nothing else, the Yanks were going to go down swinging.
“In soccer, sometimes you can’t always control a ball or a bounce,” Bradley said. “You can give everything in a game. I think that has become the special quality of this team.”
Not in Donovan, the team’s undeniable star who had suffered through a frustrating second half, playing a part in an epic blown chance when he may have interfered with Jozy Altidore in front of an empty net. The thoughts of another early World Cup exit was looming in his head, the memories of what he calls the nightmare of Germany 2006 hanging everywhere. This was his team, and he wasn’t going to let it lose.
“I’ve been through a lot,” Donovan said through tears. “It makes me believe in good. And when you try to do things the right way it’s good to see it work.”
And in the stands, the American fans, half a world from home, continued to stand and chant and wave their flags in hope that the dream would be answered. And when it was answered, when the improbable had been produced, they started charging.
These aren’t college kids. These are grown ups. They are mostly well-heeled who can take time away from work on an expensive vacation. Yet the moment was so magnificent, the goal so perfect, they broke all security measures anyway.
After the game, they had mashed up against the fence in numerous places, screaming onto the field at the American players who were hugging and kissing and dancing. The players ran over to party with their people – Altidore even doing a mini-mosh pit leap into the adoring masses.
“U-S-A! U-S-A!” went the chants, audible even over the din of the vuvuzelas. All was right here in the South African night.
Now suddenly the United States had won its group, advancing to play Saturday in Rustenburg. The opponent will be Ghana, which eliminated the U.S. at the last World Cup in the teams’ final group game.
A trip to the knockout stage is all anyone here wanted; from the stands to the sidelines. The Americans can play they’ve kept saying. The Americans are dangerous, they’ve kept preaching.
Give these guys a chance and they’ll take everything.
So long after the team had headed to the locker room, as the rest of the place had cleared out, the American fans stayed and screamed. The bandwagon is moving fast for American soccer now, and why not? What’s not to love about a team that never quits, that shakes off adversity, that forces break rooms and chat sessions to overflow across the States? This is America’s team now.
Here in the grandstands it always has been. These are the die-hards, the ones who have always believed and continued to when the moments got short and the possibilities bleak.
“As we were coming to the stadium, the street was lined with U.S. supporters, waving flags, dressed up, chanting USA, knocking on the bus,” Bradley said. “We don’t always have that. To have that happen in a World Cup, in South Africa, that was a really special feeling.”
And so the fans that delivered it stayed and sang. And they danced. The party will go on. Saturday is next. And then who knows. Maybe more. Maybe much more.
Here come the Yanks. Here come the cardiac kids. Here comes the red, white and blue.