It was a tournament that displayed the highest highs and the lowest lows of American soccer. A tournament where we saw everything we dreamed about and everything we feared. The first two games were displays to be forgotten. After a tough 3 – 1 loss to Italy and another stupid red card we were still somewhat hopeful. Maybe if we could fight out a draw with Brazil and beat Egypt then we could advance. Then the Brazil game came. Ramires, that diving hack, won a free kick in a dangerous position and suddenly a deluge of samba goals flowed into the American net. It was ugly. It was embarrassing. After the third goal I stormed out of the sports bar and had to pace the streets for ten minutes.

This tournament, at this particular point, was also where I began to gain a lot more respect for Alexi Lalas. It wasn’t because of any great insight he had up in the ESPN newsroom. It was because after the Brazil loss he seemed just as dejected and embarrassed as the rest of us. You could see in his body language, in the way he spoke that he really was a fan of the American team and he was just as disgusted and confused as the rest of us.

Then we beat Egypt. 3 – 0. Goals from Charlie Davies, Michael Bradley, and at the time a very under appreciated Clint Dempsey. Alexi perked up a little. In his head he was singing praises to goal differences and laughing at the fate of Italy. Then we beat Spain 2 – 0. Have you seen the ESPN post-game for that? Alexi Lalas looks like he wants to get out of his chair and run around the newsroom with his arms up singing “We are the Champions”. He literally looked like it was one of the happiest moments of his life, and while the rest of the ESPN staff and crew (Hey John, hey JP) looked and sounded dry as ever, Alexi Lalas looked like he actually appreciated the significance of the event. The United States soccer team just beat the best team in the world and progressed to the finals of a FIFA competition. This was a big deal and Alexi Lalas was the only person on our country’s major sports broadcasting station acting like it.

The 3 – 2 loss to Brazil was tough. It was heartbreaking. I don’t want to go into too much. To say I could taste it at halftime was an understatement. I was picturing watching our team take the winner’s podium, and I was way ahead of myself. A lot of people have said we should’ve been happy we made it so far. We gained a lot of respect. We overachieved. Landon Donovan, who has manned up in ways I never thought possible in recent times, pretty much told those people to shove it when he said he didn’t care about those things. He wants to win.

Yeah. Me too, Landon.

So what did I take from this tournament on the whole? The US team can be the team we’ve been saying they are. They can compete on the international level. They can play teams like Brazil and Spain to the wire. They can also flounder just like we’re used to seeing them do. I still believe that while the United States has the players to be one of the world’s best teams they don’t yet have the coach. Nine out of the eleven starters for the US Men’s National Team play in Europe (the two who don’t probably will soon). If nine out of eleven players play in Europe then why are we being coached by a man who has never coached outside of the United States?

Don’t get me wrong. At this point there’s no way Bob Bradley will be fired and I’m not pushing for that. It just seems to me that he is not tactically sound enough to bring the USA to the heights it could be reaching. The subs for Sacha Klejstan and Jonathan Bornstein in the final continue to baffle me. The tactical brilliance of letting Charlie Davies take the field only occurred after Bob Bradley stopped favoring DaMarcus Beasley–a player who I’ve been saying shouldn’t be on the field for months. It was this move that not only created an offensive threat we hadn’t yet been producing, but freed up Clint Dempsey so he could actually play like he’s Clint Fucking Dempsey.

Should Bob Bradley be fired? No. But I will continue to be critical of him under the hopes that he starts making better decisions. I don’t want him to get too comfortable. The USMNT showed us the team they can be. It’s up to them to play to their potential when they take the field in 2010.

So, to the guys:
(Lando, Duece, Timmy, Boca, Spec, Gooch, Mikey, DeMerit, Rico, Charlie, Jozy, and Benny)
We at USA blog are proud of you. We know you’re hungry. We know you want more. Keep it up.

To Freddy Adu and Jose “Gringo” Torres:
We believe in you. Keep at it.

To Bob Bradley:
We begrudgingly accept your regime and welcome you to prove us wrong when we doubt you. We welcome you yelling, “IN YOUR FACE WE WON STUFF I RULE” at us whenever possible because it means the USA team is winning. That’s all that matters.

To Alexi Lalas:
Keep being a real fan.

That hurt. In a way it would have almost been better to lose the way the first meeting between these two teams went. But to so dominate the first half, hold a 2-0 lead, then watch it all slip away was tough to take. Bob Bradley’s management of the second half was certainly questionable at best and his subs were just flat out stupefying, but that’s nothing new.

Even still, the guys gave it their all and performed valiantly. Tim Howard won a well deserved Golden Glove and a visibly upset Clint Dempsey took the Bronze Ball and in the end, the team takes home runners-up medals that I don’t think anyone thought they could win at the start of this. If anything, this experience should drive them through the World Cup next year. There is no greater motivator than to come this close to unprecedented glory, and hopefully next time they can actually drink it in.

[Photo: ANTONIO SCORZA/AFP/Getty Images]

Here we go — USA vs. Brazil for the most important cup final going on today, and perhaps the most important cup final the US has ever been a part of. Daryl and company will be liveblogging below, so enjoy and hope that the US takes the South African people’s advice…

[Photo: Deadspin]

Well, the Confederations Cup final will be a rematch of USA vs. Brazil, which, uh, didn’t go so great the first time around. But this time, the US is rocketing off a convincing win OVER THE BEST TEAM IN THE WORLD and Brazil is sneaking away from a 1-0 win over South Africa.

Michael Bradley will of course be wrongfully absent from this one as a result of his red card, but that just means he’ll be available to play saboteur during the match. So watch your back, Kaka. And don’t mind the growling that may or may not be coming from your locker during halftime.

More on the match later, but to change the subject ever so slightly — hey, look! Gold Cup roster announced:

GOALKEEPERS (3): Jon Busch (Chicago Fire), Troy Perkins (IK Start), Luis Robles (FC Kaiserslautern)

DEFENDERS (7): Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Jay Heaps (New England Revolution), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Michael Parkhurst (FC Nordsjaellands), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock)

MIDFIELDERS (8): Davy Arnaud (Kansas City Wizards), Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Colin Clark (Colorado Rapids), Sam Cronin (Toronto FC), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Logan Pause (Chicago Fire), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)

FORWARDS (5): Freddy Adu (AS Monaco), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Santino Quaranta (D.C. United)

Looks like an odd collection of players, headlined by Adu, Davies, Cherundolo, (ching), and Cooper. Yet, that was to be expected following the Confed Cup. Should be interesting to see what these guys can do with the chance to play. I hope.

Here’s the US starting XI:

Howard
Spector, Onyewu, DeMerit, Bocanegra
Donovan, Clark, Bradley, Dempsey
Davies, Altidore
(4-4-2)

Wow. Not only did Bob remember that the 4-4-2 worked, but he leaves Charlie Davies in, and gets the now fit (I guess?) Boca in at left back. Wow.

Of course, he had to leave Ricardo Clark in there just to satisfy his deep desire to not do things totally as he should.

Half an hour ’till game time and I’m getting pumped like C+C Music Factory. More to come…

2:27 pm ET — The Spanish team really is a collage of diversely awful hairstyles, isn’t it?

2:35 — I know they just did that whole “say no to racism” bit, but if I attacked everyone blowing those damn vuvuzela’s would that really be considered a hate crime? Are vuvuzela blowers a race unto themselves?

Spain dominating in possession, as is to be expected, but the US is holding nicely. That can all change in a moment, but I’m satisfied so far. Also, Davies is always threat. So sad Bob didn’t realize that until these last few days.

2:39 — OH MY GOD DEMPSEY ALMOST SKIDDED THAT ONE INTO THE CORNER! Wow. It was almost 1-0 USA. Holy crap.

2:55 — Why are they having this tournament (and the World Cup) in a place where it’s winter time during the event? Seems silly.

2:57 — SWEET PAPPY JOHNSON WITH AN ERECTION THE USA IS WINNING!!!!! Jozy Altidore with masterful control and a fantastic turn and shot and the US is up 1-0! Beating Spain! Hahaha I can’t feel my legs!

3:08 — Spain is getting in position for fantastic chances, but their stuttering and the US’ defensive recovery has kept them off the scoreboard. That can’t keep happening, but it’s nice to see the US able to regroup and recover.

3:17 — Halftime. And after some close calls, the US is still winning 1-0. That, by the way, was the first goal that Spain has allowed in this tournament, putting them in a very very unfamiliar position right now. Their inability to finish on some good chances and shows of frustration are encouraging. They’ve been softened by playing very weak opponents until now and it appears they weren’t ready for the challenge.

3:42 — This is getting dangerous. The US has curled up in some kind of prevent mode and Spain is getting chances by the buttload. The US needs to hold on, but they need to attack if they’re going to do that.

3:51 — The US is drained and fatigued. We need subs. And Bob needs to tell them that if they allow a goal they’re gonna have to play even longer with extra time.

3:55 — Davies off for Feilhaber. Seems like a good idea.

4:00 — GOAL!!!! GOAL!!! GOAL!!!! FEILHABER, LANDON, DEMPSEY — AMAZING!!!! 2-0 USA. 2-0 USA!!!!

4:10 — He had to bring in Casey, didn’t he? Jozy out. Standing O for him (in my mind).

4:13 — Straight red for Michael Bradley. That was dumb. Now he’s out for the next match, as well as the first Gold Cup match. Dumb.

4:15 — Dempsey off for Bornstein. With just a few minutes left, I say whatever to that and applaud Clint for a great game.

4:20 — IT’S OVER!!!! THE IMPOSSIBLE HAS HAPPENED!!!! The US wins 2-0 to advance to the final. A team that reached the semi with two losses and a -2 goal differential, and they beat the #1 team in the world, snap their record unbeaten streak, and they’re in the final of the Confederations Cup. Pure insanity. This is a massively historic day in the history of US soccer.

Oh, and, I know the red card came late, but can I still say the US beat Spain 2-0 while being a man down?

[Photo: ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images]

Alright. The reality of the situation has finally set in and now it’s time to get down to brass tacks.

We all know how good Spain is and how they haven’t lost in their last, like, 112 games, but you know what? They’re not taking this game lightly. Kind of. Says Xavi:

“It will not be easy. Even though they do not have much history, they made life hard for us in a friendly in Santander. [Jozy] Altidore, [Michael] Bradley and [Landon] Donovan are good players.”

See that — that’s respect right there. He even knows their names!

“I hope that Brazil would be our opponents [if we make it to the final]. We would like to compete with them and we would not lose our style, the feel, the triangles and the possession to win games.”

Alright, so going right into talk of meeting Brazil in the final kind of negates his previous statement, but whatever. A few notes on the game:

-Yellow cards from group play do not carry over to the semifinals. Yet, oddly enough, a red card in this match would not only result in missing the final, but also the first match of the gold cup.

-Bocanegra is back in training, but will probably be a game time decision as to whether he will play (sounds like he probably won’t).

-Jozy tried to talk some trash to Villareal teammate and Spain fullback Joan Capdevila via text the other day, but it didn’t really work out. Said Capdevila:

“Yesterday he sent me a message and told me that we had to be careful. But his Spanish is not so great, so I think he made a mistake.”

-The losers of both semifinal matches will play each other in a match for third place on Sunday.

-They’ll probably have the liveblog angle covered on the mainpage, but we’ll have some kind of running commentary/occasional updates throughout the match here.

[Photo: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images]

I have no idea what the hell just happened in those two matches, but I do know this:

1) We need to play the 4-4-2 all the time.
2) Charlie Davies needs to start more often.
3) Bob Bradley still needs to be fired. I hope that doesn’t get lost in this madness. But it will.

Guzan; Spector, Onyewu, DeMerit, Bornstein; Donovan, Clark, Bradley, Dempsey; Davies, Altidore … a 4-4-2.

So Charlie Davies and Brad Guzan get rare starts, which could be intriguing, but Egypt have advancement to the semifinals on the line, so it might be best to watch this one with your hands over your eyes…

Further thoughts later, but…ugh. What a nightmare.

Since Barack Obama bought us all one way tickets on his crazy train of positivity, it’s been difficult to be morbidly realistic when looking ahead to big matches like this (after the fact? not so much), even just two days after that 3-1 loss to Italy.

But this lack of hopelessness is not without its justifications. As you may remember, the US MNT once beat Brazil in the long-ago time of 1998, when they finished on the happy side of a 1-0 Gold Cup semifinal against the then reigning World Cup champions.

So what does that have to do with the present? Well, very little — aside from setting a precedent.

But this match will be important in evaluating where we stand ahead of the World Cup. Under Bob Bradley, the US is 0-4-1 against FIFA ranking’s top five. In most of those matches (that didn’t involve Ricardo Clark getting himself sent off), their defense kept them within strike distance of more points, but their inability to score didn’t achieve a more respectable record. And since moral victories aren’t worth any points in the World Cup or here at the Confederations Cup, further improvement is obviously necessary.

Will this be the match where we see that happen? As our new familiar refrain goes: we’ll see.