Rooting Against Team USA

Posted on Jun 20, 2010

Flickr / babasteve (CC-BY)

U.S. soccer fans watch the World Cup from a park in South Africa.

Harper’s Ken Silverstein explains “why I hate Landon Donovan” in this feel-good post. “Tragically,” Silverstein concludes, “it appears the U.S. soccer team will likely continue to plague the Cup with its God-awful soccer.” Guess not everyone’s on the bandwagon.

Ken Silverstein on Harpers.org:

Donovan also said, “My guess is there are not many teams in this tournament that could have done what we did and arguably won the game,” Donovan said. “That’s what the American spirit is all about.”

Do what? The only thing that matters is the final score, which history will record as a tie. Donovan’s remarks are equivalent to Paul Pierce’s saying in an interview after last night’s Lakers–Celtics game, “My guess is there are not many teams who could have done what we did. We were beating the Lakers by 13 points in the second half.”

Second, given that the press has been talking about how the Americans had scored an “upset draw” by tying “mighty England,” shouldn’t today’s result therefore be deemed an “upset draw” for Slovenia, the smallest country that made the Cup?

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