U.S. fans discover use for tie

RUSTENBURG, South Africa – After the game ended, strangely on a substitution, the Americans in Block 215 at the top and back of Royal Bafokeng Stadium didn’t seem to know what to make of the night: A 1-1 tie with England in what was the most anticipated United States soccer game in decades.
“Is that it?” a fan shouted as the officials waved their arms, stopping play. Everything went still and a numbness fell over the throng.
A tie?
In all the months of nfl jerseys waiting for this first big match of the World Cup, it was the last thing anybody imagined. Ties have always been so unsatisfying for us. Ties decide nothing. They say nothing about who’s better, who’s stronger, who’s faster.
And so many of the U.S.’s fans were already in the aisles, ambling toward the tunnel, when the gravity of the night finally hit them. This was, in fact, a win. A huge win. Tying mighty England on the first night with two winnable games ahead was actually good. And as if to prove it, the English players sulked off the field as the Americans turned and walked – many now shirtless – toward the sections of United States fans in the stadium and applauded them.
Suddenly a party broke out.
Fans in red-white-and-blue top hats hopped in place. American flags twirled in the sky. A chant broke out: “USA. USA. USA.”
All around outside the stadium the celebration raged. The stadium announcer said goalie Tim Howard was the player of the match and the U.S. fans began to chant his name. They sang songs. On a staircase below Block 210 a group of Americans donned 3-corner hats, dangled a “Don’t Tread on Me,” flag from the railing and hollered at the crowd below.
And beneath them Americans began to gather, laughing and pointing. It was all so huge.
All around the English fans walked glumly toward the parking lots, their once certain victory now in tatters, their World Cup dreams dealt a mighty blow. Even if it took the Americans a little time to comprehend the significance of this tie, the British understood all too well. It might as well have been a loss for them.
Never was their despair more evident than in the handful of nfl Saints jersey men who dressed themselves as knights wearing white sheets with red crosses, carrying cardboard swords and fashioning helmets out of cardboard. In the hour before the game they were the toast of the night waving their weapons and posing for pictures,
By night’s end, they walked dejected into the dark. Someone broke a bottle. Another kicked at a light post. The knights stood around, glum and stunned near the gates outside the stadium. A television reporter ran up to them and asked one “what was your favorite part of the day.”
“Before it started,” he said.
The reporter laughed.
The knight didn’t.
Later, as they stood near the stadium gates an American fan ran up to them yelling “you must knight Tim Howard.” The knights glared.
Yes, the U.S. has learned something about ties now and, as a result, may have taken another step in its soccer evolution. You could see it in the way the U.S. fans shouted and cried and hooted vuvuzelas through dusty streets, marching out toward busses and the park and rides.
Inside they had not overwhelmed. The most anticipated game did not draw a raucous crowd. Much of that might have had to do with the 8:30 p.m. start and the fact that many in the stadium had been drinking for a long time. Whatever euphoria they had earlier in the evening dissipated as the night wore on. Then when England scored the American crowd fell into a stupor. An “oh no” pall ran through the American supporters
For a long time the British seemed to out-shout and out-cheer the U.S. Their signs filled the railings. Their lusty songs rolled off the stands.
But when their goalkeeper Robert Green mistakenly knocked the ball into his own goal, tying the game, the American fans awakened, slapping hands and hugging. This lasted until halftime when everybody left the stands for the beer counters in the concourses below. At one stand, the Americans in line broke into an impromptu rendition of nfl football jersey the “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Yet it wasn’t until game’s end that noise rose again. But this was more of a desperate cheer, hoping, praying for a goal that could be the difference in the game, the Cup and soccer in the United States. It never happened.
Then soon it was over, The American fans stared for a moment at the field and they erupted in a great cheer. This was indeed a victory. They had tied the great England.
Which was the same as a win.
Finally America might have learned what to do.