Anti-USA Conspiracy at the World Cup? It Would Appear So

Ok, I hate soccer but what happened today is a pretty damn big deal. The USA advanced to the second round of the World Cup for the first time since 1930 off of a goal by Landon Donovan during extra time. It's the equivalent to hitting a last second three point shot to win by 1 and advance in the NCAA tournament.

A few things:

• Props to the US team for not being down early and not having to fight back for the first time in the World Cup.
• Soccer has now been elevated to front page news in the USA.
• Landon Donovan has finally reached expectations and has solidified himself as the best current US born soccer player and maybe the best US soccer player of all time. Not only did he kick the winning goal against Algeria but he also scored the first goal to rally the US to tie Slovenia. The guy is en fuego.
• Is there an anti-USA conspiracy going on in the World Cup?

I'd like to focus on the last made point. The US could have been up comfortably 1-0 against Algeria in the first 21 minutes of play when Clint Dempsey appeared to have made a goal. The refs called the goal off because of an offsides call. After further review, Dempsey was clearly onside, thus making this the second time in as many games that the U.S. almost got completely Effed in the A at the World Cup.

The first time happened against Slovenia when team USA had a goal called back on a phantom call and had to settle for a tie. If the US would have beaten Slovenia, then the drama today would have been lost.

This begs the question, is the rest of the world out to get us in the World Cup? I'm no expert in soccer but I think that the blown calls were pretty bad and that is the consensus of the continuous talking heads on the 24/7 coverage of the World Cup on ESPN.

We are arguably the most hated nation on the planet. We dominate in just about every sport imaginable and have some of the best athletes in the world living within our borders. We treat soccer like it's the plague when it comes to national interest and I am sure that it sticks in the crawl of the rest of the soccer loving world that we are doing well in the tournament that they live and die for.

I'm not going to blame them for the contempt in which they hold us. When it comes to soccer we don't care. That would be like England throwing together a football team and coming over here and beating the New Orleans Saints. It is unfathomable for that to happen because: A). England doesn't care about football and B). We treat football like they treat soccer. It's our national sport.

I don't put it out of the realm of possibility that the US is being treated unfairly in this tournament. It seems that we are not only playing the world but we are also playing the refs out there on the pitch. But in Donovan we trust. Welcome to icon status Landon.