Going into the World Cup, my goal for the team was to A) get to the knockout round, B) pull one upset to make it to the quarterfinal. In my wildest dream, I didn't think the US would win the group and get the more manageable bracket we have found for ourselves. Now that Goal A has been achieved, I still stick with the goal of pulling a big upset and advancing deep in the tournament. Ghana is beatable, they're a lot like the two teams we just played, defensive oriented and very athletic but don't pack much offensive punch. Winning this game would be a big accomplishment, but not an upset. So that pushes Goal B back by one game, beating Uruguay in the quarterfinals would be a tall order, but also a realistic goal as well. It is really not that much of a stretch for this team to reach the semifinals. Think about that for a one second... the USA could legitimately make it to the semifinals.
It's still very early to totally jump on the "we're gonna win the world cup" bandwagon. The US has only lead for a total of 2 minutes in the entire tournament. The previous record for fewest minutes in the lead for a team that went on to win their group was the Netherlands in like 1982, they led for 21 minutes total. So it really is a massive statistical anomaly that the US wins this group. They still have to do a better job of settling into games and not falling behind, and on capitalizing on scoring chances. At the same time, this is the first USA team ever to go undefeated in group play, and they're one bad call and one deflection off the goal post away from being 3-0-0, and they have tangibly improved in each game (it's always a sign of a good team when they improve from one game to the next). Again, it's early to say, but the team has all the characteristics of a darkhorse cinderella team. If they can win Saturday, then I will be convinced this is a team that can make a serious run at the World Cup.
