Trying to be philosophical

I predicted this.

I always said we’d go three and out, but really, in the end, I believed. I knew we had the quality to beat Ghana. We had the ability. We had the results going our way. And then we threw it away.

We didn’t show any drive or heart. That’s what hurts. I can take a loss, although I was sick after the loss to Germany in 2002, but I knew we’d done ourselves proud. We’d outperformed our abilities if we’re honest and reached dizzying heights through determination and a bit of luck.

This time there was little of either. The latter perhaps is just things evening out a bit, but the former is very disappointing.

What hurts is the lack of meaningful games until 2009. I don’t know how I’m going to survive until then without any success to fall back upon. In 1998 it took nearly two years to get back to even wanting to watch this team, such was my level of disillusionment. I hope that it doesn’t go quite so badly. If we get a few good matches and make a strong showing in the Confederations Cup or something.

We need to get some momentum going quickly in order to pick up the hardcore fans who’ve been so disillusioned and maybe just maybe get some press.