Triumph the greatest form of justice for US
Triumph the greatest form of justice for US
By Eric Beard, writing from Boston
Over the course of 90 minutes I felt like I was slowly starting to lose faith in humanity. After all, the United States were going up against everything from well-worked goals being disallowed to red card offenses being ignored. It looked hopeless, and yet the air in Pretoria was incomprehensibly filled with hope. And thankfully, the game lasts a little longer than 90 minutes. As Emerson once wrote, “Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.” Though I may have pondered Bob Bradley’s decision to start Jonathan Bornstein over the gargantuan Oguchi Onyewu, I never, for a second, stopped trusting them. And after the likes of Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, and Tim Howard proved themselves to be world-class throughout the last two matches, I knew that these men embodied greatness.
Great teams have composure, self-belief, and, most importantly, talent. If the US side was not as talented as they were, no one would have expected a win this Wednesday. As Landon Donovan stated after his seemingly immaculate 91st minute game-winner, the United States’ leader said, “I’m so glad it culminated this way. When you try to do things the right way, it’s good to get rewarded.” It is worth noting that the “right way” does not include throwing elbows that cause your opponent to bleed, trying to hurt someone recovering from an ankle injury (Jozy Altidore), and losing confidence in yourself. The beautiful game often turns ugly, but that is only because it is so easy to see when a team is playing the game with a positive or negative mindset.
