Amazon Adventure 2014: USA v. Portugal - the elation and the heartbreak

These USA games are not good for my heart. The entire second half of tonight's game had my heart beating double time, and by the end of the game it was beating like a drum. Holy smokes! What a game!

I don't know what the sports guys are saying back home, but here in Brazil we believe the USA outplayed Portugal and contained Christiano Ronaldo (until that last goal). For a few minutes we really believed we were going to beat Portugal, kick them out of the World Cup and advance to the knockout rounds. The US sections at the stadium were absolutely rocking (and we definitely outnumbered the Portugals fans, by quite a bit). That last-second goal sucked the life out of the USA fans and temporarily added some to the Portuguese fans. Leaving the stadium, however, everyone was pretty subdued. Team USA fans were pretty heartbroken about the ending (though going into the game, we would have been thrilled with a tie), and Team Portugal fans were disappointed they didn't beat us (and know their road into the knockout rounds is a lot tougher than the USA's or even Ghana's).

There are still several scenarios for the US to advance, so we've got to bring our A game against Germany on the 26th (and hope for a Ghana-Portugal tie for the easiest path). As Klinsmann said, they call this the Group of Death because we're in it too.

Ended up a wee bit depressed back at Manaus's main square tonight, which was absolutely rocking. Manaus was out in full force. We were almost immediately asked by several Brazilians to take our photo in our USA gear with them. This went on for maybe 10 straight minutes, making us feel like celebrities. What a kick all of these Brazilians got out of these pics. Our group lost our allure a bit as fans in better costumes showed up post game, though we were continually asked for pics the rest of the night as we chatted with other American fans and local Brazilians. We decided we found our South American "Gingers" - drinking street beer in the Manaus main square. Got us all mostly out of our post-game funk, though I can only imagine how much more exciting the square would have been had we actually won that match. Alas...

For your blog viewing pleasure, Erin and I made it our mission tonight to get pics with some of the very many amazing USA outfits we've seen fans sporting at the games. Sometimes I could just grab a quick pic as someone was walking by but their outfits were too good not to snap a pic (even if I couldn't get them to stop and pose). Sadly, no Elvis sightings tonight. Hope they're back in Recife. Our team USA gear is tame compared to some...