Newspapers and other media outlets in America were full of hope for the future and praise for Tim Howard’s record-breaking goalkeeping display in the USA’s 2-1 loss to Belgium inovertime on Tuesday. “America’s got talent: [Jurgen] Klinsmann’s youngsters provide hope for USMNT” read the front page of USA Today, while the LA Times lead with “It’s over forU.S. at World Cup, but America hopes it’s just the start.” In the article, the Times claimed: “For the past two weeks, for the first time ever … soccer showed its power to unite this countryof different colors and cultures like no other sport.”
The New York Times followed a similar theme, declaring in its headline that “Soccer is the Winner” in the USA’sriveting overtime defeat. “Television ratings in the United States blasted through ceilings, surpassing those of the N.B.A. finals or the World Series,” the article said. “Watch partiespopped up in places far more varied than just craft breweries in Brooklyn, with fans gathering everywhere from Hermosa Beach in California to a library in Birmingham, Ala., to the Tulsa Drillers’minor league baseball stadium in Oklahoma. A gathering at Grant Park in Chicago was moved to Soldier Field to accommodate a crowd reported to have exceeded 25,000.”
Meanwhile, Belgian dailyLa Libre was left catching its breath: “The Devils are in the quarterfinals, and will play Argentina not without having scared themselves. What a crazy game! The Red Devils managed to climbinto the World Cup quarterfinals but not without having made a whole country tremble,” the paper wrote.