U.S. OUT TO KEEP FILLING ITS CUP
Bradley & Co.: ‘We want more’ than just reaching 2nd round
SAO PAULO — They got this far four years ago, and some of the older ones remember what happened next. The Americans won their group, the brackets flew wide open. Then a blink later they were knocked out in the Round of 16 by Ghana. Nothing they had done earlier in that 2010 World Cup, not Landon Donovan's miracle goal against Algeria or anything else, mattered in the least. Knock or be knocked. “We want more,” Michael Bradley said Saturday before training. “There’s no feeling of satisfaction at the moment. We want to be here for another few games, we want to continue to push and push and see how far we can take this.”
Anybody, almost, can win in this stage. Anyone surely can lose. It almost happened to Brazil on Saturday, almost silenced the car horns and the fireworks and the whole party. Brazil won its group, and that didn’t help at all against the tough Chileans, right through overtime until penalty kicks.
“Doesn’t matter if you’re 3-0, there's no prize for that,” said Bradley, a teammate in Toronto of Brazilian hero keeper Julio Cesar. “You come through the group or you don’t. This is the first checkpoint.”
The reward for the undefeated Belgians is they get to play the U.S., which may not be much of a prize at all. The second checkpoint arrives Tuesday in the lovely coastal town of Salvador, where Bradley personally will complete a full 26.2-mile marathon sometime in the first half. That’s how much he has run in this tournament, often to little avail.
In some ways, his performance here personifies this American team. He hasn’t looked great, yet here he is. Not knocked out yet. “On the inside, we have a big belief in ourselves,” Bradley said. “We came through in the big moments, no two ways about that. When we needed to close our lines, we did. When we needed to score, we scored.”
Barely, though. And now they are playing a team that Bradley admits is better than almost anybody on its continent.
“It’s a country that doesn’t have the history of Germany or Italy,” Bradley said. “But if you look at the last few years, they have to be talked (about) as one of the best in Europe.”
Tim Howard was t here, too, in Rustenburg. He was the one beaten by Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan in overtime. One thing he’s learned, though, in his long career — it doesn’t matter when you lose. Just matters that you lose.
“The sting of failure is the same as any other round,” Howard said.
From where he watches this team, the goalkeeper is convinced this U.S. team is better than the one four years ago. Not
everyone would agree with him on that, because the Americans too often ceded position and possession in two of three matches. But Howard insists he spotted greater promise from this squad in training camp, and that promise was realized.
“I thought we were slightly better and we proved that,” Howard said. “It just seems we’re passing more fluidly.”
DaMarcus Beasley was there, too, against Ghana. He wouldn’t talk about that on Saturday, because he’s not looking back these days any further than Germany, a match he said “wasn’t our best.” It was left to teammates to sing the praises of his conversion to defense. Howard said he was proud of Beasley’s transition to outside back.
"Once he accepted playing fullback, I thought he’d be brilliant," Howard said. “I’m a big fan of wingers becoming fullbacks. I just think it’s a natural progression.”
Howard gets to boss around Beasley now on the back line, tell him where to go to stop Eden Hazard and these extraordinary Belgian attackers.
“They’re a young, hungry, really fit strong team,” he said. “Hopefully they won't take flight yet.”
Howard, who has played with three Belgians at Everton, was asked whether their national team might be too young, too inexperienced.
“A lot of them are playing for club teams in the Champions League,” he said. “There’s nothing like that — except the World Cup.”