John O'Brien
scores the USA's first goal in their 3-2 defeat of Portugal.
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The USA has
produced one of the shocks of the World Cup. Simon Husbands - our
World Cup correspondent for the USA - gives us his reaction to the
upset.
As the US wakes
up to just another day, a glorious victory has just been achieved
by their national side, playing one of the giants of international
soccer, Portugal.
In front of
a crowd of 37,000, the US team proved their worth by hanging onto
a 3 goal lead, and then surviving an onslaught by the Portuguese
soccer men of war, and now have real hopes of making it through
to the next stages of the World Cup.
Who would have
thought it?
As the underdog, the US hopes were not bright, but all that changed
in the 4th minute when John O’Brien scored the fastest goal in US
World Cup history – slamming the ball home after a powerful Brian
McBride header from a corner was saved.
From then it was almost as if this upset sent the Portuguese into
a rut they couldn’t break out of – and the US team took full advantage
of this.
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| Simon Husbands
celebrates a famous US victory over one of the tournament favourites. |
The Portuguese
goalkeeper Victor Baia may be in fear of his job, as he seemed incapable
of any decisive action in the goalmouth, and certainly the Portuguese
defence seemed to be having a hard time rallying round. More goals
on the way? Sure.
Baia strayed
off his line in the 29th minute surprising defender Jorge Costa
into a mistake allowing 20 year old US striker Landon Donovan to
steal the ball and Costa deflected the subsequent Donovan kick into
his own net.
The helpless Baia of course was nowhere to be seen. And then in
the 37th minute, McBride’s diving header at the back post pushed
the ball into the net to take the US team 3 goals ahead.
The Portuguese seemed to rally at this point in an attempt to avoid
a devastating embarrassment, and two minutes later Roberto Beto
side footed the ball past Blackburn Rovers’s goalkeeper Brad Freidel
into the net after O’Brien failed to successfully clear Beto’s first
shot after a corner.
The rest of
the game saw the Portuguese making attempt after attempt to pull
back the two goals they needed, but somehow the US managed to keep
the scores apart – until the 71st minute when veteran Jeff Agoos
collected an own goal, slicing the ball past Freidel after trying
to clear a cross.
But it was too late for the Portuguese - the US side had dug in
and managed to hold on, and, despite some timewasting, achieved
the impossible – a defeat over Portugal. Hold on, World – the Yanks
are coming!
Read more about
Simon as our USA World Cup
correspondent.
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