U.S. Eliminated From World Cup in Extra Time (GIFs)

The U.S. loses to Belgium in the round of 16 by a score of 1-0 (in extra time) to get eliminated from the 2014 World Cup.

In a sport where the first team to score often wins, you got to play a tight game from start to heart-pounding finish, with every miscue emphasized because there are so few openings. Chris Wondolowski  of the USMNT had an opportunity to ice today's match against Belgium it in the waning minutes of regulation, but kicked (if you'll pardon the usage) the U.S.'s best chance to advance to the quarterfinals. It was the type of thing that gets a third world player executed (thankfully here you just get executed on Twitter). In case you missed it (or if you just want to remember how close advancement was) here it is:

The miss prompted head coach Jurgen Klinsmann to react the way many of us did, like we just saw a jogger get hit by a car:

If you give good teams an opportunity, they take advantage. That's universal. Just a few minutes into extra time Belgium's Kevin De Bruyne put in a second chance goal to give the Belgians a 1-0 lead. All the U.S. team could do was put their hands on their heads in disbelief.

The defeat was undoubtedly unfortunate for the USMNT, but in the losing effort Tim Howard really put in a game for the ages. The U.S. goalkeeper blocked 16 shots (the most in a World Cup match since 1966), but without support from the offense there's little he could do. There was a second Belgian ET goal that put the European nation in a nearly impossible to overcome 2-0 advantage. The second score came roughly 15 minutes after the first, and was put in by Romelu Lukaku:

The U.S. valiently tried to overcome, but if you're down 2-0 in ET, you might as well be down 100-0. Still, reserve Julian Green put in a late goal to make the score a little more respectable, unfortunately it came about 20 minutes too late.

For soccer diehards (and we know you're out there) the loss is a tough blow, for the rest of us, we'll just have to pretend to like something else now.

[GIFs via Twitpic]

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