Felger & Mazz: USMNT Loses To Germany, But Feels Like A Win - What A Sport!
BOSTON (CBS) - Germany beat the United States handily Thursday afternoon by the score of 1-0, but that final score doesn't really tell the entire story.
The US had just four total shots, only one of them on goal. They were also out-possessed by the Germans 63 percent to 39 percent. This obviously comes after Sunday's stunning last second goal by Portugal to force the 2-2 draw.
To summarize their group play in the World Cup: the US won a game they should have lost (Ghana), tied a game they should have won (Portugal) and lost a game they should have lost -- Thursday's one-nil defeat to the Germans in the northeast city of Recife under the driving rain.
Despite the up-and-down play, the Men's National Team did what many deemed impossible: advancing out of the Group of Death.
98.5 The Sports Hub's Felger & Massarotti show began their discussing the outcome of the Germany game. Tony Mazz, an admitted soccer novice, doesn't know what all the celebration is about.
As you can see in the above photo, the captain, Clint Dempsey, is happy.
Head coach Jurgen Klinsmann is happy:
Defender Omar Gonzalez is happy:
...Omar Gonzalez is really, really happy:
"The whole thing just doesn't feel right, does it?" Mazz asked about celebrating in defeat. "Do you like the way they're playing? They got through, which is all anybody ever wanted. So fine."
"You feel better today in a loss than you did in the previous game with a tie," Felger interjected.
"It's totally ass-backwards!" added Tony.
"What a sport. You puke all over yourself in the second game, lose in the third and you're through to the next round," said Felger.
Even though the guys expressed initial negativity (shocker, am I right?), Michael Felger is pleased with the play of the US Men's National Team because he believes they deserved to advance.
"They're hardly the first team to lose their final game and go through. They're hardly the first team to get to the round of 16 doing what they did," said Felger.
"You see this every time at the World Cup. They put themselves in position to advance today with a 1-0 loss, so at the end of the day they deserve credit. It just feels like a little too much glad-handing and backslapping after you were just controlled for 80 of the 90 minutes."
The US also owes a great deal of gratitude to the Ghanian team, who simply imploded on themselves in the final days of their World Cup run.
Felger adds that advancing to the round of 16 is a good step in the right direction for the sport of soccer in America.
"They didn't make the World Cup at all from 1950-something to 1990. So when we were kids they weren't even in this tournament. This is the first time ever they've advanced to the knockout round in two straight World Cups."
Listen below for the full discussion:
USMNT Loses To Germany, But Feels Like A Win - What A Sport!
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