Of all the places to watch a soccer match, I watched the US-Algeria match at a waiting room, while my wife was undergoing surgery. Nothing anyone could have done about that, really; my wife's surgery was scheduled weeks in advance, and there was no way anyone would know that the US faced a do-or-die game on that same day.

Trying to watch a soccer match at a waiting room is a tricky affair. For starters, every television was set to "Regis and Kelly Live," and a few blue hairs seemed keen on Regis and his wife interviewing Tom Cruise, and not too keen on someone asking if he could switch over to a soccer match. Thankfully, there's ESPN Mobile for my iPhone. Even better was the fact that I could stream the match live while piggybacking on the hospital's free Wi-Fi; this way, I wouldn't stream AT&T's 3G data, and eat up my allotted data for the month. So kudos to ESPN Mobile for bailing me out right then and there.

Once the semantics were settled, I found a chair away from the bleating drones of Regis Philbin (then later, Dr. Phil and the abhorrent "The View") and tried to remain calm. If you know me, you know that I can't possibly remain calm during a match. I'm squirming in my chair. I'm officiating. I'm cursing and rueing. But in the waiting room, you're trying not to make too much of an ass of yourself.

The mission for the US soccer squad is simple: win, and you advance to the Round of 16. Lose, you're out. A draw helps, as long as England either loses or draws against Slovenia. Easy, right? If you're familiar with how the US team plays, you know that they simply won't make things easy for us fans. 6 minutes in, Jay DeMerit, a solid rock in the back, misplayed a pass that allowed an Algerian player to launch a volley past keeper Tim Howard...it's a goal...but, thankfully, no, it hits the crossbar. With both teams playing attacking football, you just know right then and there that this match is going to be a heartstopper.

How so? Let's see...

- Jozy Altidore missing a point-blank shot.
- Edson Buddle's header blocked by the Algerian keeper Rais M'Bolhi.
- Clint Dempsey hitting the post in the 55th minute, on a goal he should have scored.

And then there's the disallowed goal. A scramble in the goal mouth, and there's Dempsey to slam the ball right in...but, no. The line judge rules Dempsey was offside. The replay, shown over and over again, showed Dempsey wasn't offside at all. Here we go again, I thought; another FIFA-approved officiant jobbing the US all over again. As the match progresses, I'm seriously entertaining the notion that maybe FIFA doesn't want the US to win. Maybe FIFA doesn't want the US to be a winning side, because, God knows, once the US gets good at something, like inventing the airplane or developing a vaccine for polio or landing a man on the Moon or killing people on the other side of the globe, we love gloating about that shit. The last thing FIFA wants is 300 million people gloating over winning a World Cup, something that's always been the exclusive domain of the Brazilians or the Italians.

Meanwhile, I'm getting more and more tense. I'm also keeping an eye out for the doctor or any nurse informing me of how my wife's doing. Around halftime, I get word from the doctor that she's out of surgery, and she should be in recovery for at least another hour. I'm glad she's recovering, and her surgery's gone well. I'm also glad I have another hour to finish the match. Selfish reasons, of course, but I can explain those reasons away.

The match is back and forth. Coach Bob Bradley's rolling the dice, substituting Maurice Edu for Edson Buddle, and, most tellingly, DaMarcus Beasley for Jonathan Bornstein. Switching to an attacking 3-4-3 formation, with 3 forwards, Bradley's almost daring the Algerians to counterattack, and when the Desert Foxes, as they're known back home, did counter, the defense held up. With this kind of formation, especially with the likes of Buddle and Beasley creating and actively seeking scoring opportunities, you just knew eventually the US would unlock the Algerian defenses.

90 minutes now. The ref's added 4 extra minutes to the game. Unless we score, it's yet another World Cup disappointment for the US. A lazy shot across the goal mouth, and Tim Howard easily recovers...and fires a 60-yard bomb to the streaking Landon Donovan. Jesus, Howard just looked like Peyton Manning there. Donovan launches a cross through the penalty area...Dempsey fires a shot, blocked...the ball's loose...here comes Donovan out of nowhere to play the rebound...

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLL!!!



Sweet merciful Mother of Jesus, it's a fucking goal!

And, damn the torpedos, I'm jumping up and down in the waiting room!!!

Finally, the match ends. US 1, Algeria, 0. And with England winning their match, the US victory has an even bigger significance to it: by earning the most points in Group play, the US wins their group, and avoids playing the likes of Argentina, Germany and perhaps England again in the knockout stage. In this case, the US now faces Ghana (with a little revenge in mind, for Ghana knocked the US out of the World Cup in 2006), and, if they beat Ghana, would face either Uruguay or South Korea. Excellent teams, of course, and teams the US have better chances of defeating.

For Landon Donovan, that last-second act of heroism finally laid to rest the accusations that Donovan was never a big game player. If you've been watching the US' 3 Group Stage matches, Donovan's easily been their best player, scoring when needed, and orchestrating the offense, and leading by words and example. Maybe now the haters will stop refering to him as "Landycakes."

For the US team, yeah, guys, way to give us all heart attacks, and way to show heart and guts and leaving everything you've got out there. A loss would have been damaging. A loss would have meant some wholesale changes to the team and to management. But Bob Bradley's shown he's not so conservative when it matters; all the moves he's made in the 3 Group Stage games have impacted the game positively for the US.

For me, I bit my nails down to the quick, and tears rolled down my eyes. I still have tears in my eyes as I'm writing this.

Ultimately, June 23, 2010 will forever be remember as the day when people in the United States finally began to really care about US soccer. Don't believe me? See for yourself: