The Scene from the Abbey Burger Bistro and other random thoughts

Before the match started, every single one of us would have taken a 1-1 result. Now that the match is over, I think all of us are pretty happy with the result. All of that said the atmosphere at the Abbey Burger Bistro would have led one to believe that this was not the result that we wanted. I wonder if that’s because the American sports fan has yet to accept that draws are ok, or that we were all so stressed that relief was the actual emotion being shown, or if we have reached a level where we actually feel that we should have defeated England today. I’m not sure what the reasoning was for the lack of evident emotion, but I think it says a lot about where the program is that elation and glee are not automatic reactions after such an impressive result.

After going down 1-0, and following a brief explosion of expletive Ricardo Clark expletive, I turned to Julie and said “I believe I have seen this before” recalling our trip to Gelsenkirchen 4 years ago to the day against the Czechs. When Altidore missed his header from 7 yards out, I turned to Julie and compared that miss to Reyna hitting the post against the Czechs. When Shaun Wright Phillips lined up a shot from Tim Howard’s right and about 25 yards out, I thought to myself that this looks way too similar to Tomas Rocisky lining up his goal against us. However, SWP’s shot went wide and that was the end of the Czech comparison. A few minutes later, Dempsey let fly of a tremendous missile that Caroline would have stopped. Unfortunately for England, Caroline was not in goal and Robert Green was. Poor Robert Green, but happy days for us and the United States. It was a goal that was deserved based on the style of play if not for the shot that it came from. After the goal, I turned to Julie and gave a hug of elation (and high fives and hugs to everyone else around me.) The bar went crazy and the energy level ramped up a bit. Chants of USA started again – it was quite the scene.

Halftime came and I can honestly say that I wished halftime was about 30 minutes longer today. The bartender came over to us and asked what we wanted. We all said, “Water, a lot of water.” I felt like I had played 45 minutes. I didn’t even realize that the match had gotten underway until I heard Martin Tyler’s voice.

The 2nd half was just stressful, especially since we spent a good majority of it defending. That said we had the best chance of the half when Altidore worked Carragher (aka, the big slow disaster that is apparently England’s 4th best CB) and hit the bar after a save from Green. I can only imagine how the bar would have reacted had that one gone in…

In the end, we got the draw that we all craved and we are in a great position to move out of the group. We are the favorites on Friday and we need to find the ability to get a result in a match that we are supposed to win. I’m taping the game this evening so that I can watch it again and take in the commentators, the performances of specific players, and see what it looked like without the cloud of stress affecting my viewing.