2006 Remembered :: USA v. Ghana

Third Group Stage game in Nuremberg against Ghana and the USA needs a win and some help to go through. We are the victim of horrible officiating and some self-destruction. But in the 43rd minute, Run DMB steals the ball and sends a steaming cross to a streaking Clint Dempsey. The ball is coming right towards us but from our low angle, it's hard to see who the recipient is supposed to be; it's just ball and grass and hope. And then, like a vision, arrives Dempsey to one-time the cross into the back of the net, as Noah would say later, kicking the ball harder than anyone has ever kicked a soccer ball anywhere. We erupt into madness. Our shins are cut on the seats in front of us. Darkness arrives at the edge of our vision from screaming-induced oxygen deprivation. There are tears in our eyes. Noah and I are holding each other. Jeremy and Silver are holding each other. We keep saying, "This is what we came for. This! Is! What! We! Came! For!" The game ends poorly. We walk from the stadium in silence. We ask logical questions about Landon Donovan's geographic and emotional whereabouts. We swear to return. The Dempsey goal is what we came for. It's what we go back for. It's what we wait for against England. We're still here.