Wetzel column: Draw with Germany? That's just dumb

quote:

---

Yeah, well, here's what fixing Thursday's match would be – lame … pathetic … uninspiring … pitiful … and, most importantly, completely nonsensical in the interest of actually benefitting the American team.

For the record, Klinsmann, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati and a host of players all shot down the concept, repeatedly and directly, when it was first broached after the U.S. tied Portugal 2-2 on Sunday night. Some did so with a measure of anger.

"[Klinsmann has] answered it about 35 times," Gulati said bristling at the fact he had to even discuss the very concept. "Let me answer it real quick. That may have been the mentality in 1982. It is not the mentality of the U.S. team. We're going into that game to win the game. Full stop."

---

quote:

---

"It's not going to happen," defender Matt Besler said. "It's not going through the players' minds at all. We don't think of scenarios, we think about ourselves. We have our head down and we're trying to win games. That's all we're thinking about."

---

quote:

---

After all the fighting and scraping, all the sacrificing and dreaming, all the considerable effort that the American players have put forth in this tournament and it should end with a handcuffed effort just so U.S. Soccer could claim some empty barometer of success of getting out of group play, and then walk into a Belgium buzzsaw and hope for a miracle?

This is just stupid.

---