U-S-A! U-S-A!!

Alas, the Well has finally run dry.

Jill and I watched the US-England game with Ed and Alison on a giant screen on the street in Brooklyn. It was an awesome game. We let ourselves get down early, but then we went to The Well of Miracles, and lo- the English keeper hands inexplicably started oozing industrial-grade lubricant, and we managed to salvage a thrilling tie.

Joel and Beth and I watched the US-Slovenia game at the French cafe down in HMB harbor. That time, we let ourselves get down 2-0. It's absolutely terrible to get down early at this level, so we once again went to the Well of Miracles, and lo- it was 2-1. And then 2-2. And THEN, 3-2, but for the Curse Of The Ref Who Hallucinated The Entire Second Half And Thought At One Point That He Was Giving A Yellow Card To A Unicorn. We can only assume that somewhere in Slovenia, in some town whose name has no vowels in it, a ten-year-old boy also went to The Well of Miracles. No matter- vengeance will be ours someday when the residents are tricked into saying the name of their town backwards, and they all disappear back into the 5th dimension.

In any case, it was a thrilling game, where once again The Well of Miracles came through for us, and we salvaged a 2-2 tie.

I watched the US-Algeria game in the Elephant and Castle, a bar near the SF office. I arrived at 710am, and the place was packed. I watched the entire game standing in front of the little sign that said "The Hostess Will Seat You". Since it is a British pub, they had the England-Slovenia game on the giant screen in the basement, and the US-Algeria game on all the little TVs on the ground floor.

In this game, we somehow blew chance after chance, and in this game a tie was as good as a loss. So, in the waning minutes of the game, we shifted to our old reliable strategy of going to The Well of Miracles, and lo- Landon Donovan scores the game winner!! My ears only recently stopped ringing from all the screaming that erupted.

I just got back from watching the US-Ghana game. I watched it at an Italian bar/restaurant with the owner and a bunch of his family/friends. I was standing on the sidewalk watching on the big screen, but one of the ladies left quite early so I just invited myself to sit down in her chair, at their table. They spent the entire game jabbering at each other in Italian, and largely ignored me.

In this game, we once again did that thing we do where we give up a goal in the first 3.2 seconds of the game. So, we found ourselves down again for the *third* time in this World Cup. Again, this is not the level to be doing that. Early in the second half, we were forced again to go to The Well of Miracles, and lo- we were awarded a penalty kick on a marginally bad tackle in the box! Landon Donovan scored off the post, in a kick that was a lot closer to missing than it really needed to be.

Aha, back in business, tied 1-1. But then it went to overtime, which is like a whole new game, and so predictably we had to start off by immediately giving up a goal, as our slothlike fullbacks, both of them, failed to get in front of Ghana's striker, who ran right through the middle of them and made a nifty kick to score.

And now we were desperate. In the closing minutes, we were forced once more to go to The Well of Miracles.

But, here's the thing about The Well of Miracles. If you keeping going back to the Well again and again and again, sooner or later you discover that the well has run dry. Sadly, today was that day for us, as a flurry of chances were denied.

It was a good run, Team USA. I laughed, I cried, I exulted, I screamed profanities. God willing, I'll see you in Brazil in 2014. Who's with me?