How did the USA soccer team advance to the semifinals of the 2009 Confederations Cup?
The U.S. men’s soccer team faced long odds heading into Sunday’s first-round finale against Egypt at the Confederations Cup in South Africa, the last major international tournament before next summer’s World Cup. After demoralizing losses to open the tourney, a 3-1 loss to Italy and a 3-0 defeat to Brazil, Bob Bradley’s national team was on the brink of elimination for the fourth straight time. In fact, the United States only had a chance to advance because of Egypt’s earlier upset of Italy. The United States needed to win by three goals and have Italy lose by three. And that’s precisely how things went down. Spurred by a gutsy 21st minute goal from youngster Charlie Davies and second-half tallies from Michael Bradley and former Rev Clint Dempsey, the Nats rolled to a 3-0 win over Egypt in Rustenburg while Brazil spanked the Azzurri 3-0 in Pretoria. Sources:
The U.S. men’s soccer team faced long odds heading into Sunday’s first-round finale against Egypt at the Confederations Cup in South Africa, the last major international tournament before next summer’s World Cup. After demoralizing losses to open the tourney, a 3-1 loss to Italy and a 3-0 defeat to Brazil, Bob Bradley’s national team was on the brink of elimination for the fourth straight time. In fact, the United States only had a chance to advance because of Egypt’s earlier upset of Italy. The United States needed to win by three goals and have Italy lose by three. And that’s precisely how things went down. Spurred by a gutsy 21st minute goal from youngster Charlie Davies and second-half tallies from Michael Bradley and former Rev Clint Dempsey, the Nats rolled to a 3-0 win over Egypt in Rustenburg while Brazil spanked the Azzurri 3-0 in Pretoria. “Big surprise, but we knew we were capable of this and Brazil helped us out as well,” U.S. attacker Landon Donovan said. “Now we have a di
Brazil won the group with victories over the US, Italy, and Egypt. The US, Italy, and Egypt had identical records of one win and two losses. The first tie breaker is the difference between goals scored and goals allowed. The United States and Italy were even at minus two; Egypt was minus three. Using the second tie breaker, total goals scored, the Americans prevailed over Italy by four to three. The US will play Spain, the European champion, on Wednesday, June 24, 2009. Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/sports/soccer/22soccer.html?
