Improbably Day for U.S. National Team

The U.S. Men's National Team in soccer pulled off the unthinkable today. They not only needed to beat Egypt by 3 + goals, a country that lost to a world class Brazil team by the slimmest of margins at 4-3, but the U.S. also needed Brazil to beat a very talented Italian National Team by 3 goals as well. Impossible right?

Not exactly! Charlie Davies started the scoring barrage for the U.S. in the 21st minute beating Egyptian goal keeper Essam El Hadary to a loose ball. However, with only one goal at half time beating the Egyptians by 3 was still looking bleak. It wasn't until the 63rd minute when the Americans realized they had a shot to pull it off! Landon Donovan diced through the Egyptian defense and hit Michael Bradley with a square pass that was drilled past a diving El Hadary for the second goal. That was followed 8 minutes later by a goal from Clint Dempsey to cap off the 3-0 win for the Americans.

Throughout the match, U.S. players were given updates on the Brazil game that was being played simultaneously. For most of the first half, U.S. players were told Brazil and Italy were tied 0-0. Things didn't look good for the Americans to advance. But suddenly in the 36th minute, Luis Fabiano scorched the Italian keeper for the first goal, and followed it up six minutes later with his second goal in the 42nd minute. Just like that the Americans chances were getting better. To make matters worse for the Italians, in the 44th minute they scored an own goal and Brazil was up 3-0 before the first half was over.

No one thought the U.S. had a chance to advance in the Confederations Cup after losing 3-1 to Italy and 3-0 to Brazil. Of course those outcomes were dramatically affected because of red cards in both games, leaving the Americans to play with only 10 men. To the non-soccer fan, playing 11 on 10 wouldn't seem to make much of a difference, but the advantage of a team playing a man up is almost insurmountable.

Nonetheless, the U.S. Men's Soccer Team advances to the semis in style. The celebration will be short lived though, with the hottest team in the World in Spain waiting to knock them off. Spain has rolled off 15 straight wins, a world record, and is unbeaten in their last 35 games. It'll be tough for the Americans to make the finals, but if today's unprobable win is any indication, anything is possible.