Howard's Heroic Effort Not Enough for United States Soccer

The phrase "I believe that we will win" swept the nation over the past three weeks. It became a rallying cry for the United States and their upstart soccer team. The hashtag #IBelieve could be found all over Instagram and Twitter on gamedays, non-game days and countless other occasions. Although some people didn't like how it became trendy, but that's life because no one in this generation can be happy. Regardless, United States Soccer captivated a nation, and many people wanted to see things continue as they took on Belgium in the Round of 16. Unfortunately for US fans of old and new, the dream faded away on Tuesday with U.S. losing 2-1 with an all-time great performance from Tim Howard, you wonder about their conservative play and the future is brighter than ever before.

When people talk about the best United States player, they looked towards Landon Donovan and now Clint Dempsey but perhaps Howard deserved to be there all along. He wanted to redeem himself from the 2010 World Cup where he played after hurting his back a few months prior. Howard played one of the more memorable games in United States soccer history on Tuesday night. He stood directly on his head and kept United States level when it seemed like Belgium should have led by three or more goals. Had the U.S. won this game, Howard would be remembered like some of the other American greats who have led their national team to great victory. In a losing effort, Howard still deserves to be honored for his performance.

There will be dissenters saying 'Why should we honor someone whom allowed two goals' and those people are the walking idiots around the world.  Howard saved 16 shots. He didn't make a couple big saves, he saved 16 potential goals. It's the most goals saved since 1966. There are many questions today whether Howard will play in 2018 World Cup at Moscow with him being 39 at the time. I don't think he can actually be the starting goalie at that age, but he will still get chances to play in likely the Gold Cup and Copa America leading up to the World Cup. All the time in baseball, pitchers do not get the satisfactions of the team winning after a great performance, and this is exactly what it felt like for Howard.

Much of the reason why Howard had to be on his head is United States conservative play on Tuesday. They didn't exactly park the bus, but they really did not attack as much as you might have wanted them to. It seems like there was a legitimate fear about the counterattack from Belgium. Further even with a conservative gameplay, Belgium still had a great deal of shot attempts which makes you think if the U.S. attacked more Belgium probably would have even more opportunities.  People said if Algeria played like they did against Germany versus Belgium where they were much more attacking they would have beat this Belgian team. We can criticize the lack of attacking from the United States, but it was likely the only way to keep the U.S. in the game.

There were a couple chances for the United States to have two goals in this game making it a little bit more depressing. Chris Wondolowski had a perfect opportunity to give the United States the win in regulation, and he put it over the net. There is debate if the flag was up for the goal kick or if he was 'offsides' which he wasn't. There is some joy and solace in not knowing why the flag went up. If it went up for an offsides, that's all we are talking about this morning. After Julian Green made a statement with his first touch being a goal, the U.S. had a chance for a miraculous equalizer after being down 2-0 in Extra Time, but Clint Dempsey missed the Annexation of Puerto Rico set piece. U.S. was denied a chance to move to the Round of 8 for the first time since 2002.

The future is brighter than ever for the U.S. Men's National Team.  DeAndre Yedlin whom had to came in for Fabian Johnson is only 20 years young, Julian Green is only 19 and seven players on the current roster will be 28 or younger in 2018.  This team is ready to strike and could be a threat to make a long run in 2018. Everyone is right about soccer captivating the nation, and this also means more pressure on this squad. The expectations are raised to another level in 2018 which almost makes it more fun because for once, America wants to have a successful soccer team.

It feels great to have everyone into soccer. I was always a casual fan but remained on the sidelines, I always talked about doing a blog diary of watching different Premier League teams trying to find the one I would like to cheer for because like hockey, I don't really have a club. There is no reason to stop soccer watching with the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Champions League. And if you need the U.S. fix, Copa America is two years away, and we get the Women's World Cup next season.

Go America.

Charlie.