ESPN's Michael Davies: America the Beautiful

[dark knight]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=davies/index&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1


I'm still coming down from the high. Genuinely one of the best football games I've seen in my life. And make no mistake, that was football out there tonight. Hard-nosed, violent, every inch of the field contested, fan inspired, battling, in spite of the ref, dramatic, passionate, breathless football. The atmosphere was evangelical, a communion of faith, doubt, determination and fear between the opposing players and the opposing fans. All witnessed by the non-believing disciples in the international media.

[dark knight]

Sorry - one more quote:

5. The performance of the US fans -- They behaved like real, world "football" supporters. They sang, they took on the ref. They lifted their team Make no mistake, that was a game of football -- violent, passionate, hard fought and the U.S. contingent responded. Outstanding.

[owian]

If 02' and the ritual of losing the German's 1-0 was our birth into the world of international football this game was our first communion we were aware of what we were doing and made a decision to fight scratch and bleed.

Oh yeh Davies is great too the only writer I have read who has been able to meld the game of European football and american soccer into one cohesive unit. Ussually you get the american writers (you know the ones who think our #4 rating makes sense and winning the MLS puts the Galaxy on par with Barcelona) and the Euro writers (the ones who still think the guy with the red hair and the guy with the dreadlocks still play for the US) Diffenetly enjoy his blog.

[Ismitje]

I had so much fun reading Davies in 2002 - he's still got it in 2006. This is inspiring stuff as well.

[Freestyle2000]

One of the great things about the World Cup, for me, is the chance to see actual columns about soccer. Folks like Steven Goff of the Washington Post get just enough space to get in the who, what, when and where, but we get the "why" during this time. This is when we get these ESPN blogs, the opinion, the analysis - almost like soccer was a big time sport or something.

Davies is fantastic. Can we get a blog of the MLS final at least?

RS

[SoccerPro843]

My favorite quote:
"An incomparable performance by the national team in the modern era. And listen to those fans. Football just arrived in America I think, the players and fans played and cheered with the true passion of a footballing superpower. The U.S. may not win this World Cup, they may not even qualify for the next round, but this performance continues to lay the groundwork for the future. In fact, watching the performance of those players lifted in communion with their fans, I think they just completed the basement and the first five floors."
He's right. To be honest, I'm done bitching about the ref. Tomorow is a celebration. I guess tomorow became today 44 minutes ago so, time to go celebrate!

[beergod]

I just wish I could've been there today to cheer the team on. Full credit to the supporters who were there today, great atmosphere for our national side.

[matabala]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=davies/index&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1

Strange: for "hard-nosed, violent and battling" I prefer boxing. But then I like my football shaken not stirred.