The defense held, but the goal continued to elude the United States, and when the fourth official raised that bright red four into the Pretoria sky, at least one American player noticed it.
“I usually don’t look at the fourth official, but tonight I saw him,” Donovan said. “I glanced over for a second and saw him standing there, and I saw the four minutes go up. The half seemed to fly by, but there was a kind of a sense that there was going to be at least one more good chance.
The disappointment of 2006 is a distant memory now, both for Donovan and his team and the U.S. national team fans here in South Africa and back home. The team’s goal of advancing has been reached, and now both Donovan and the team are ready to set new goals, beginning with its match against Ghana on Saturday.
“I said all along getting out of the group was our goal,” Donovan said. “It doesn’t mean we’re content with that, but I think we can all be proud of what we’ve accomplished, and now we’re going to regroup and go after it on Saturday.”
Ives Galarcep is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the U.S. national team and Major League Soccer.
