What a goal!!!! Farmers Gastro pub went nuts! People in bars, people sitting at their cubes watching espn3, people on their iphone’s, Sam’s army supporters, the American Outlaws, soccer moms, non-soccer fans nationwide all joined together and screamed with excitement as Landon Donovan scored. This game winning goal in stoppage time sealed USA’s place at the top of the group.

Almost all USA fans expected it. We all believed it should happen. But, I honestly gave up in the 87th minute. My mind was racing. Had we learned nothing from 2006 World Cup? Have we gotten any better? That was until I saw Tim throw that ball 55 yards into Donovan’s stride.

A shot of excitement ran through my body immediately. The counter attack resembled the attacking style we showed in the confederations cup. It just felt like this was really it. I felt so much pride for the USA team. It was a goal that will change US soccer forever. One second, one moment, one goal really does change everything. Sounds cheesy. How true is it though? In one second I went from despair to absolute bliss. Who else felt that way?

When they interviewed Landon, he was still in tears, he spoke of the long journey he had been on. I have not been a fan of Donovan. It all started in 2006. Almost all my friends can attest to that. I have been mad at him since 2006. I expected the best and got the worst. Josh Keisker and I have been on some pretty entertaining rants about him. I don’t know what is going on off the field in Landon’s life. But at that moment I felt Landon Donovan had gained his honor. Many people do not talk about honor anymore. But in 2006 he had lost it. He had poor performances and even worse excuses. We were only mad at him because I expected the performances he showed against Algeria. He has gained it back and earned my respect.

Now we face Ghana in the round of 16… we have to regroup from our emotional roller coaster against Algeria. The game is a rematch of the final USA game in the 2006 World Cup. A game I was fortunate enough to witness first hand.

My friends and I had tickets to all the USA games. The game was June 22, 2006, in Nuremberg, Germany. I don’t recall the exact “bracketology,” but I believe we needed a win and Italy to win. This game was just 5 days after our stunning draw with the future world champions Italy. In this game the USA team played well. More importantly this game really showed the true potential of the American fans.

The streets of Kaiserslautern were littered with thousand of US fans. The soldiers from Ramstein Air Force joined us to completely out number the Italian fans. The independent European fans were in utter shock as the streets were littered with the stars and stripes cheering the Team America theme song.

One of the most patriotic moments of my life was singing the national anthem before that game. The US fans sang as loud as they possibly could. There were no vuvuzelas drowning us out. The stadium absolutely shook to the rafters. The sound goes through your whole body when that many people sing together with that much heart. You feel it to your soul and you think you could take on the world together. The draw gave us the belief that we could move forward and get through the group. But first, we had to beat Ghana in Nurnberg.

After being in Germany for almost 20 days we headed to Nuremberg. We were very excited for the game. Goalie, Dave and I went to the game early to see the Nazi rally grounds and to get our pregame rituals in. We arrived at the stadium in Nuremberg about 6 hours early. The stadium is next to location of the old Nazi ally grounds. This is was the heart of Nazi Germany during World War II. We went up to the spot Hitler gave his speeches. We saw some Englishmen there too and had a beer for the allies. We took pictures where Hitler stood with beers in our hands. We drank for all the fallen American and allies lost in such a terrible war. On the grounds there is a lake. This lake used to be the site of Hitler’s German Stadium. It was to be a soccer stadium that would hold 400,000 people. The stadium was never completed and after the war it was filled with water. It was a great experience that I am glad I did. To understand history you have to understand the good and bad things that have happened.

After our little history lesson we moved on to the beer garden next to the stadium. Americans were dressed in their jerseys. Goalie, Dave and I did what we did best at the time……drink. The Blue’s Brothers were there, Harlem Globe Trotters, Drew Carey and even an Elvis sighting. There were lots of Ghana fans. They were absolutely the nicest fans we met. Especially compared to the obnoxious Italian fans (I was very happy to see them eliminated today). They were all smiles as they sang songs and enjoyed the World Cup atmosphere. They really were a class act.

The stadium atmosphere was so great. American flags littered the place. We all were ready to face a tough opponent. The game started decent with both teams having something to play for. Claudio Reyna, the USA captain made the first mistake of this chess match in the 22nd minute. “Captain America” slipped in our defensive third gifting Haminu Dramani of Ghana with an easy breakaway. Unlike the 2010 World Cup, Ghana actually scored without them being a penalty kick. As usual USA gave up an early goal. We had to recover and we did in style. In the 43rd minute Beasley sent a beautiful left footed cross to Clint Dempsey who crushed the ball into the net. The USA fans were ecstatic!

The game had been about 50-50 possession and we knew we could push forward. Unfortunately in stoppage time of the first half, our current captain Carlos Bocanegra attempted to clear the ball from our own corner flag. Somehow he forgot he was playing in the World Cup and cleared the ball right into our own goal box! I nearly threw my drink at him. To make matters worse a Ghana striker went to settle the ball and got slightly brushed in the box by Onyewu. He went down like Cristiano Ronaldo… I could really go into my rant about this problem, but that will be my next article. The referee called a penalty and Ghana converts to make the score 2 to 1. The second half was rough but we could not get the goals we needed. The game ended with almost identical stats except one. The score.

Saturday afternoon USA will play this Ghana side again. Have we learned anything from our previous games? We know Ghana is having trouble scoring goals. The only two goals they have scored were penalties. Micheal Essien, the heart of the Black Stars lineup, is missing. With Ghana not the best offensive team, USA has an honest to god great chance in this game Saturday.

Three keys to beating Ghana: First, control the tempo. Possess sometimes, push sometimes. But keep the pace unpredictable. Remember to use our strengths and counter when we can. Second, don’t give up an early goal. Third, we have to have composure in the final third. If I see one more lofted pass to our strikers I am going to throw up. Play the ball to their feet and let them use their skill to get us a victory.

Finally the trump card…the USA fans. You don’t have to be a Sam’s Army supporter or an American Outlaw. Kansas City’s Power and Light is showing the game as is Farmers Gastro Pub in Springfield. Come out and cheer them on! I learned a lot in Germany at the games. It gave me a perspective to the soccer that I did not fully realize until Donovan was crying after the Algeria game. It was that the team knows what went wrong in 2006. They now know what they have to do and they believe they can do it. It really makes me believe USA can make a solid push deep into the Cup. This is an adventure not to be taken lightly and the team knows it. The fans need to join together and support our team. We are all on this adventure together and I don’t want it to end.

Look in Donovan’s eyes, there are no more excuses. Yoda says it best, “Do or do not. There is no try.”