No it's not hard for Americans to grasp. Try to look at the group stage as a regular season of three games. Just like the NFL there is a myriad of tie breakers as regular season play ends. The major difference is that head to head isn't the main tie breaker.
In the next round it's "win or go home" so that should make it more American for you.

LMAO

We are in baby! Better than being out. We live to fight another day.

ahh, OK then. We don't have that cultural Belgium hangup though and most of us won't visit Europe within the next few months to be mocked.

So, I'll just look at this game as the USA being the underdogs against a good team.

...

This game was clearly never taken seriously by either team...

Go Algeria!

On the same point, In Bruges is a hilarious movie.

Well..times get tougher now. Sucks that all 3 CONCACAF teams are in the same half of the bracket during the knockout round

I'll give you the last 5 or 6 minutes or so, but for most of the game both teams were clearly trying to score.

At the very end when it was clear that a 0-1 loss would be enough, the USA's priority was then to focus on defense and make damned sure they didn't lose 0-2.

This is the FIFA equivalent to Succop missing that Field Goal against San Diego last year to put the Chargers in the playoffs and knock the Steelers out.

Well I tried to like soccer but its just to freaking boring. The pussies flop every time they are touched. They grab arm or leg like its broken in half and hanging by the skin.

Looked like a group of older kids playing keep away from the short bus kids today. I brought my tablet to work as other did too and I was about to sign out to the field. Figured id spit on a walk or something and watch and see how long before it evaporates.

Anyway got back to office logged back to espn and seen the happiest bunch of USA player. I thought they had rallied and won. Then they flash 1-0 finale for Germany. WTF you celebrate and smile and whoop it up after the ball was in your end it seemed an eternity? Later I see they lost yet advance huhhhhhhhhhhh. This looks like grade school where the schools teach everyone's a winner they're are no losers. Then I see the went 1-3 in that round. Yes I don't like soccer and never will.

Your opinion is important!

Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise.

LMAO

Whole lot of dumb in this post

WTF is with Bradley this tournament?

The ball hits his foot and he acts as if it's a ****ing grenade.

Glad they're moving on, but they've got to clean up the turnovers going forward.

made it to the next round without jozy


nothing but joy...we can play with belgium

Mine is of no consequence but Americans as a whole will not get into this over baseball, football and basketball. Your soccer moms and dads will watch a little. But the people you see now are bandwagoneers jumping on for lack of anything else to do.

Just more attempts at the pussification of American kids. :)

Lots of ignorance in this post.

You don't like the sport? Ok fine. I hate baseball. Every sport isn't for everyone.

With that said, you don't know a damn thing about the sport at all, which is clearly evident in your post.

Nice. Would've been nicer if they hadn't blown the previous game's lead, but still. Who even had them into the round of 16?

Has anyone disliked soccer and not told everyone about it? It's the internet version of flopping.

Somewhere around 35% pre-tourney to advance out of group, so I'm betting not many - myself included.

Is Jozy gonna be back or what?!!!!

This team can do some damage when fully rested with Jozy up top.

First of all, these guys don't wear pads like in the NFL. Contact can actually hurt, which you aren't used to since it doesn't really happen much in US sports without pads.

Second, the group stage is like the regular season. We pretty much understand that you can lose the last game and still make it to the playoffs, and if its a week 17 game where some team lost to let you clinch, your team is going to be pretty happy even if they lose the now-meaningless week 17 game.

This was a group where the USA was a heavy underdog and it would have surprised no one if they lost all 3 matches. If you are not impressed by the USA making it out of the group of death, then you are stupid.

So what. He can still not like it without knowing a damn thing about it...

Wow, I'm not sure if you watched us today or not. Both teams were playing hard throughout. the USA had scoring chances even in the last few minutes. And if it wasn't the play you were watching, both sides made substitutions that indicated they were looking to win.

Don't worry, The Decision 2 is just around the corner for you "soccer is boring" types.

And that's fine. But don't come here telling my why something sucks when you have no idea what you're talking about.

That's like someone telling you that your Mustang is slow and shitty because it has a 4 cyl engine.

Hell, I think most people expected three losses. 1-1-1 seems great in retrospect.

Hot sports takes.

Very proud of that team...especially that defense.

I doubt soccer cares much, and if I was soccer, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be like the NFL or NBA. Bandwagon or not, the support has been pretty nuts... don't see that kind of excitement at P&L on Sunday afternoons.

Some wondered if we were going to score a goal at the World Cup or not. Germany and Portugal, two probably top five teams in the world, and Ghana who has had our number for so long?

I don't think anyone really expected them to advance.

I guess im one of the few that actually expected the US to advance.

So it's us and Germany who are through then? Awesome.

If your football team is 13-2, and celebrating after the last regular season game which they lost to go to 13-3, it would be like someone who doesn't know a damned thing about the NFL going "what? Why are they happy, they lost! That is really dumb, the NFL is dumb, I don't get it." We'd all be tearing that dumbass apart too.

If you are confused about why people are making a big deal about the USA advancing out of the group of death, and celebrating even though they narrowly lost to Germany, then perhaps you should google the topic and read a few stories before spouting off.

Or they could just drink anti-freeze and make the world a better place.

Looks like we might've done ourselves a favor today with the way the brackets are shaping up for the single-elimination phase...
Here's what Germany's bracket looks like:

Brazil
Chile

Colombia
Uruguay

France
Nigeria

Germany
(Russia/Algeria)


-------------------------------------------
And here's what our side of the bracket looks like:

Netherlands
Mexico

Costa Rica
Greece

Argentina
Switzerland

Belgium
USA
------------------------------

I've got to say, I like our side more.

Going forward:
Belgium has for the past couple years been considered a "sleeping giant", and there's no denying that there is immense, young talent on that team. However, their play in the World Cup to this point suggests that the Giant may not yet have awoken. We can absolutely play with the Belgians, but will need a tremendous improvement from Michael Bradley to combat the Belgian midfield. If we make it past...

...sure, Argentina's another mammoth task, but they too have struggled to live up to their expectations thus far. A near-draw with Bosnia Herzegovina (who are no schlubs, mind you), and a last-minute bailout from Messi against Iran, suggest that this team is beatable. Messi will be Messi, and there's nothing you can do about it, but the real struggle will be whether Beasley can keep up with DiMaria for 90', because he's a terror on wheels, almost literally, with tremendous pace and ball control. If we get here, I don't expect us to beat Argentina, but IF WE DID...

...we face my odds-on favorite to win the WC, the Netherlands. I really can't come up with any convincing reasons why we could beat them. Even if you drop 5 defenders so Besler and Gonzalez can mark Robben and van Persie, I just don't see us having enough to keep possession for any length of time. Making it this far, though, would be the biggest accomplishment in US Soccer history. It's nice to dream, I guess.

Right. Add into your scenario that there was another ongoing game which another team in your division lost, which sent you to the playoffs. You'd still celebrate a playoff run, even after losing.

In other news the Watch ESPN app blows. I just went back to my regular and reliable source of vipbox.

So on the day Ann Coulter rips soccer a new one, the US team gets completely embarrassed by Germany. 37% time of possession, 1 shot on goal in 92 minutes of nothingness.


She was obv wrong.

Go away. Another topic that you pretend to know something about.

You're not lying. That service would improve dramatically with the simple ability to choose your video quality, even if it means slight stutters or "buffer breaks". I have no desire to stream a match if its unwatchable due to the "auto-quality" assigned by their app.

Do you like Ann Coulter?

I'd say love is the operative word there.

I do like the World Cup but that game today was horrendous to watch and anyone saying otherwise is full of it. Germany's keeper made....zero saves today. How can you spend 92 min of soccer without the keeper making ONE save? Nobody can explain that.

Missing our top striker to injury against the best defense and best possession team in the world. Explanation complete.

You take is like saying there is no explanation for why Peytie-pie was shut down in the SB. Sure there is, you just don't understand the game enough to see it.

I just hope that Altidore can come back healthy.

Soccer haters are like vegans, they can't resist boring everyone by telling them all about it at every opportunity.

This.... So many folks thinking not liking soccer will make people think they're tough... Telling people you hate soccer is just pretty gay...

JMO

With our closets thing to Renaldo out, I'm sure it put a HUGE damper on the offense and the number of real attempts we'd get for shots on goal. But I'm still thinking that our offense is down more than one letter grade from where ever they started.

I don't hate playing soccer, I just don't like watching it.

Do I get a 64 pack of Crayolas with the sharpener in the back for reading that post?

Actually, given that fans are a relatively small percentage of the general population...yes. Those who bitch about it are a pretty tiny segment.

The problem, as I see it, is that discussions about whether Sport X is any good or not are usually a lot like political discussions. There's really not much discussion about what can be improved so much as there's one side bitching and the other side telling them they're stupid. It happens with pretty much every sport in this country aside from football. (And even then, it still happens on a small scale.)

This post is dishonest. Had Ghana scored a few more goals the US wouldnt have advanced. Theyve won 1 world cup game the last 3 world cups.

Now who's being dishonest?

No. Since the 2002 World Cup the United States is 3-5-5.

Only in 2006 did they not advance past the group stage. In 2002, they reached the quarterfinals.

2 wins. Powerhouse.

We are most certainly not a powerhouse...... yet.

This is awesome. I'm a new fan to soccer but I feel like this is the best team we've ever fielded. When you consider that we haven't yet clicked as a team, without one of our (supposedly) best goal scorers, and in the group of death, I'm thrilled with the results so far.

Maybe 6-5-5 after getting shut out by the Broncos in the final game yet still making the playoffs.

Classic notorious ROFL

We've moved through the group stage in 3 of 4 cups. The year we didn't make it out (2006) we were playing in a group of death, as well. AND, we were the only team in that tournament that didn't lose to Italy... we tied them in the group stage.

We've come a long way since 1990, and this train ain't slowin' down.

#BEATBELGIUM

It's so sad watching you all cling on to hopeless hopes.

You're on a Chiefs board buddy. Speak for yourself.

Sigh.

http://www.wendyswizardofoz.com/hang2.gif

We're not expecting to win the world cup, you dolt.

The US team's effort today against Germany...

http://i.imgur.com/u55JHIn.gif

stolen from Reddit.

This is so dumb, reverse what happened. Say we lost the first game, tied the second, won the third and got in. Everyone would be like holy shit look at this we played are way in.

I take it you were a big fan of the 2013 Chiefs.

7-9 can get you into the playoffs in the NFL...

In America we are a win/lose society.

Playing to tie/lose and still moving on is not in our DNA.

Then don't watch it and don't come in here and bitch about it.

NFL teams lose their final game game/games of the season all the time and advance to the playoffs.

You guys griping are absolutely ****ing reeruned.

Perhaps it was out first loss after those last regular season games that's of gravest concern to many.

Defensive, are we?

I'm not griping or ripping soccer.

It's a fact. It's hard for Americans to grasp a tie when it comes to sports.

Playing with the best team in the world while having 7 MLS players starting is a big deal. We were basically daring them to try and score the entire game.

On top of that, the German team has a lot of continuity as many of them have been playing together for some time. Our squad, not so much. Shit, I feel like the only real time tested continuity we had on the pitch today was Bradley and Dempsey. Maybe Jones in there too.

All this without Jozy, and having to change our team identity after just minutes into the first game. I'm extremely proud of this team. Jurgen has done a great job.

According to 538, our odds of winning the world cup have improved from 0.4% before group play to about 1.2% now. Our odds of beating Belgium is about 41.6%.

There are no ties when it counts: the knockout stage.

Group play is just the world cup equivalent of the regular season, its not that damned complicated.

Apparently it is for soccer haters.

I mean it's not like you can't tie in the nfl, oh wait