An Optimists View

I’m sure by now everyone has heard the news: That in the past two World Cups, only Turkey managed to make it to the Second Round after losing their opening game. You may have even heard that tid-bit of information two or three times — it’s been repeated ad naseum by many media outlets. Fortunately for you, this is worldcupblog, and at worldcupblog, we go farther. The “ours goes to eleven,” of World Cup information, if you will.

Looking at the 2006 standings, it is fully conceivable that one or more teams will duplicate Turkey’s 2002 accomplishment. While the odds may seem long against the United States doing it, let’s look at some of the other groups. Croatia, despite losing, still has an excellent chance at getting 6 points off of Australia and Japan. And, despite a goal-differential that was even worse than ours, not too many people would be surprised if Ukraine were to get 6 points from Saudia Arabia and Tunisia. If France and Switzerland had not tied, you would have to believe the loser of that game could be expected to get 6 points from Togo and South Korea.

Wonder why the news-makers only went back to the last two World Cups when reporting this little Turkey nugget? To go back any further would run counter to the conclusion you are being coaxed into drawing: That is, having lost their first game, Team USA is now has a hopeless uphill on their hands. As you will see, losing the first game at the World Cup is far from a hopeless situation. You’ll also see an example of a team we should try to emulate.

One only has to go as far back as 1994 to find several examples that should give hope to all supporters of Team USA. Yes, in 1994, no less than four teams lost their first game, only to make it into the Round of 16 Knock-Out stage. Yes, four (4) teams! One of these first-game-losers even ultimatley won their group! In 1990, two teams managed to get to Round 2 after dropping their first game. And in 1986, the first year the World Cup went to a Knock-Out stage for the second round, three teams managed this feat, including jolly old England, who finished runners-up in their group after losing their opening game to Portugal.

I’d like to tell you about a certain team in 1994, however, which I will name at the bottom of this piece. Feel free to take a guess, and shout out the answer if you know it.

This team was in a tough group, which included Nigeria and Argentina. They wound up losing their first game to Nigeria, 3-0, but won their next two games, finishing as the group runners-up to Nigeria. In the round of 16, they drew Mexico, and then sent them home (sound familiar?). In the quarterfinals, they faced Germany. Neither Torsten Frings nor Hugh Dallas had a role in this game, and (possibly) as a result, Germany lost and our mystery team advanced. They later bowed out in the semi-finals by a respectable 2-1 margin — their deepest ever run in the tournament. And all after being blown out by a 3-0 scoreline in their opener. One of the players on this mystery team even took home the Golden Boot! Is that a good news story, or what?

The team? Bulgaria
The 1994 Golden Boot? Hristo Stoichkov (co-winner, with Russia’s Oleg Salenko, with 6 goals apiece)

Chins up, Americans!