Four Things You Gotta Know For Today's Game

I am by no means a soccer expert. Here are four things I know that you should know for today!

found on the Men in Blazers Facebook page. I mean COME ON. 

Wait, we lost, but we still won? Only in US sports can a draw feel like a loss and a loss feel like a win. If you were confused as to why the USMNT advanced even though we didn't beat Germany, here's the best way I can think to explain it : think of the first group round as a double elimination tournament -- you have to lose two games to be eliminated. since a draw is a possible outcome, the amount of points you've either won by or lost by comes into play. If the US and Germany had drawn, they both would have advanced because two teams advance, and neither team would have a loss. Germany beat Portugal by 5 in their match, making it virtually impossible for Portugal to advance. Since the final results were that both the US and Portugal had lost one match and drawn one match, it came down to the US having a goal differential of 0 and Portugal -3.

why is there extra time at the end of the game? Stoppage time is probably the easiest confusing thing about soccer. Since the clock doesn't stop during either half, the time lost when the clock should have been stopped is added on at the end of regulation. Things that add time to the clock include fights, fans running onto the pitch (which soccer probably deals best with by not really acknowledging the idiot running onto the field), injuries, whenever the ball goes out of play, etc. The referees have the final say on exactly how much stoppage time is added. The argument is that soccer needs to be a fluid game, unlike American football or other sports where you can stop the clock. [a more detailed explanation can be found here]

why is this suddenly a big deal? I can't predict if the overall success of the World Cup will reflect back into MLS when the World Cup is over, but I can tell you that it is keeping up with American Football ratings. Soccer has been slowly on the rise here, I mean David Bekham's abs really did a lot for the sport. Atlanta just got the rights to an expansion MLS team to start playing in 2017. A lot of it comes from patriotism, but I think that you start out just wanting USA to win [especially since we're the underdog, and we love a good underdog story], but then you become genuinely interested in the game itself.. Read a more detailed talk about the TV success and what it might mean here

why should we be excited? just watch this, if you're not pumped and covered in goosebumps afterwards, you might be a robot. Plus. This one matters, it's win or go home. I don't know about you, but I'm not ready for them to come home.

Need some more stuff to get hyped? Check out Men in Blazers, American Outlaws, and Deadspin's Screamer. I believe, do you?