Taking a late lunch, I got home at 1:00 — just in time to turn on the World Cup semifinal between Brazil and Germany. With Germany up 1-0 in the 23rd minute, my computer froze. I could still hear enough to hear the Ian Darke call of the Miroslav Klose goal.

OK, 2-0 Germany. Apparently, Flash had crashed. I restarted my browser.

I logged back in. And looked at the score in the upper right of the screen. It had only been two or three minutes.

4-0.

Holy crap. I don’t know what I expected out of this game, but I don’t think it was that.

"It's like amateur hour." "They've just completely given in" Good for the announcers for not going easy… #Brazil

— fansmanship (@fansmanship) July 8, 2014

The final was 7-1 in a game that will go down in the record books for all-time beat-downs. This was an NBA team losing by 50 in the Finals. This was a team losing 18-2 in a World Series Game 6. This was an NFL team giving up 600-plus yards and losing by 40 or 50.

So, a few thoughts as one of the semifinals is over:

1) It’s not over. Germany only beat the United States 1-0. They haven’t been playing GREAT before this game. The Germans caught lightning in a bottle, but in soccer this kind of momentum doesn’t always carry over match to match.

2) I’m not a big fan of post-game trouble. If I was a German fan, I’d buy a Brazil jersey and learn how to speak Portuguese really quickly. I’d blend myself into the Brazilian crowd and get back to my hotel bar as quickly and quietly as possible. I don’t mess around with that stuff when it comes to soccer. Wait ’til you’re back home or give it a few months before you talk trash in Brazil.

3) Ian Darke and his partner were really good. They contextualized the real situation in Brazil for the first time. Soccer gives a commentator 90 solid minutes, but it isn’t always easy to get the right words in at the right time. These guys did it splendidly.

4) Brazil looked like they quit. Darke said as much. They were described by more than one commentators as “amateurs.” The term “amateur hour” was thrown around, and justifiably so.

5) The more I see other teams break-down, I think the more proud of the United States team I am. They could have done better, but clearly they could have also done much worse.

6) On to semifinal number two: Argentina vs. Netherlands. As I see it, whoever wins this game will have the decided advantage in the final. Today’s game had an air of finality to it and I’ll be really impressed if Germany comes with a great performance in the final. Robben and Messi on the same field is not to be missed tomorrow.

Clint Dempsey scored a spectacular goal for the United States on Monday. By Erik Drost, via Wikimedia Commons

The United States showed virtually zero ability to maintain possession of the ball and were dominated in nearly every phase of the game, but still managed to somehow beat Ghana 2-1 in their World Cup opener on Monday night.

Wearing their really good-looking red, white, and blue kits, the US team was buoyed by a first-minute goal from Clint Dempsey and a late goal from John Brooks, Jr. The game’s result was exactly what the United States needed. How they got there makes me skeptical.

The Good

The United States won the game. Clint Dempsey showed why he is still a world-class forward and the team found a way back into the lead just minutes after Ghana finally broke-through. Resiliency is something the Americans usually have and Monday was no different.

While the team was mostly outplayed through the midfield, Fabian Johnson looked really solid going from a defender into what looked like the USA’s most creative threat from the wing. Brooks might have looked better than Matt Besler after Besler went off with a hamstring injury at halftime and, for his part, Dempsey looked as effective as ever.

This team has been challenged to be in “uncomfortable” situations since Jurgen Klinsmann took over and the German head coach of the US Men’s National Team should be feeling pretty good about the decisions he’s made so far.

The Bad

Let’s not mince words. The midfield of the United States was bad against Ghana. Michael Bradley and Kyle Beckerman couldn’t connect on possession. Alejandro Bedoya showed flashes of greatness, but without nearby support. Jermaine Jones played a solid match, but it’s hard when both he and Beckerman are more like defenders on the pitch.

It was a game where, in the stead of a player like Bedoya or Beckerman, I did miss Landon Donovan. Donovan has always been cool and collected. While he wouldn’t have played the kind of defense that Beckerman or Jones do, his presence may have allowed the United States to have more possession and not have to work quite so hard chasing the Ghana players who ALWAYS seemed to have the ball.

Because they had two defensive midfielders on the pitch at the same time, the United States wasn’t able to maintain possession or give me any reason that a better team like Portugal or Germany won’t have their way against the USA.

The Ugly

In the win, the Americans took a few knocks. Jozy Altidore went straight to the ground after what looked like a torn hamstring in the first half. Pure strikers like Altidore are hard to come by, and the United States will do their best with (possibly) some combination of Aron Johansson and Chris Wondolowski at the position. Donovan is a more proven creator than Johansson or Wondo, so one of them will have to do some damage in the next two games to keep the “shoulda kept Landon” pundits from coming back out in full-force.

Also ugly was the high kick Dempsey took to the face in the first half. If it didn’t break his nose, it should have. In a World Cup that some Americans view as a cesspool of flopping and playacting, Dempsey  didn’t give his bloody nose any more than a second thought. The Texan got right up, got his treatment and never seemed to embellish even a little. The “man of the match” photo at the end of the game shows his nose huge and swollen.

Yeah, in light of yesterday, the players in this come off as entitled, short-sighted http://t.co/Il2GsmivFR

— Richard Whittall (@RWhittall) June 17, 2014

Uglier still is this article that The Score’s Richard Whittall tweeted a link to today. The article is from about a year ago, when the United States played Honduras and lost. It seems that at the time, there were a lot of players who were jumping off the proverbial bandwagon, even if they wouldn’t put their name to their comments. After reading the article, it would be stupid to wonder what’s behind Klinsmann’s tactics leading up to the tournament. I also wonder how many of  the anonymously quoted players are still on the roster.

Klinsmann would have got a pass from me no matter the outcome of this year’s World Cup. His willingness to not cow-tow to anyone or anything is something I respect a lot. Here’s something to think about — a quote from the Sporting News article from above about why Klinsmann, by design, fostered some confusion during the qualifying process and how players react to it.

“They all want the safety net. They want to always feel comfortable, but if you want to elevate the program to another level, you need to go to a phase of being uncomfortable out there and then deal with that,” he said.

Here’s to the United States being comfortable in an uncomfortable position for more than 180 more minutes this Summer.