Hey everyone, Jason here.

I know the last time I did a blog about soccer it wasn't well received, but I feel like I just have to say something about the U.S. team's performance in the World Cup. In the 2006 World Cup the U.S. were eliminated from the group stage (which is the very first stage for the soccer illiterate) after a dismal performance having tied one game and lost two. This year however we won our group stage. We were eliminated from the knockout stage after losing to Ghana, so this year our team didn't advance to the quarter-finals. However, this year our U.S. team performed admirably both on and off the pitch. On the pitch, our team proved that the U.S. is the master of the comeback. In the first two games of our group we entered the 2nd half losing and made last minute goals to tie against England and Slovenia. In the game against Algeria we were tied 0-0 at the end of the game and it looked like we would end with a tie, which meant we would have lost the group stage. But in the spirit of great American stick-to-it-iveness, we scored a goal in the 1st minute of overtime and won the match and the group stage, the first time the U.S. has won its group stage since 1930.
What I found most impressive, though, was our team's conduct off the pitch. In contrast to some of the more established teams, like France, Italy, and Germany, the U.S. team showed themselves to be one of the most unified and sportman-like teams in the entire competition. Our practices were marked by good teamwork, in contrast to France, the 2006 runner-up, who were plagued with bickering and in-fighting, ditching practice, and after losing their group were sent home in disgrace. Spain won the World Cup for the first time in their nation's history by defeating the Netherlands in the final. As soon as the match was over players from the Netherlands descended on the referee and harangued him relentlessly as the Spanish celebrated. During the award ceremony half of the Netherlands team, who had the honor of winning 2nd place, took off their medals in disgust. In contrast, our U.S. players handled unfair referee calls with magnanimity. In the game against Slovenia we had made a spectacular comeback to tie 2-2, and then Landon Donavan scored a goal that would have given us the win, but the referee, in a very contraversial call, disallowed the goal, denying us the win. Instead of verbally abusing the referee (which I would probably have done), our guys just shook their heads then kept on playing. I've always been one for Brazilian soccer because of my mission experience, but this year I was very proud of our U.S. team and very proud to be an American. I hope that our teams great performance will encourage more Americans to support soccer like we support baseball, football, and basketball. I myself have begun to support the Major League Soccer team Real (Spanish pronunciation) Salt Lake. Anyway, thanks for letting me go on about soccer again. Hope this post makes for a good read.