Some pundits ranked this victory lower than some of our others (see below) because this was not a World Cup match, but they were plain wrong for the follwoing reasons:
- Spain is currecntly number 1 in the FIFA ranking.
- Spain is the current European Champions.
- Spain was on a 35-match unbeaten streak.
- Spain was on a 15-match winning streak.
- The tournament is an official FIFA tournament and the participants do take it seriously.
- The match was a semi-final elimination match.
- More importantly, Spain did not take this match lightly. They had no injuries or suspensions. They put out their stongest team and they played hard.
- Great athletes play to win. The Spanish players, most of them superstars in Europe, did not see this as not being the World Cup and put in a lesser effort. If you watched the match, you could see that Spain played to win.
1950 FIFA World Cup Brazil
First Round - Group 2
29 June USA 1:0 England
- That was in a Group stage and not an elimination match.
- With that win, USA still ended up at the bottom of their group.
- That was not a good England team. Like the USA, they also ended up with one win and went home after the Group stage.
1998 Concacaf Gold Cup USA
Semifinals
02 October USA 1:0 Brazil
- The Gold Cup is a lesser tournament than the Confederations Cup.
- Gold Cup is always hosted by USA.
- Other than Romario, Brazil basically fielded their B-team.
- This year, for example, USA will play the Gold Cup immediately after the Confederations Cup with a weaker team.
2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan
First Round - Group D
05 June USA 3:2 Portugal
Round of 16
17 June Mexico 0:2 USA
- Portugal had better and more well-known players but the match was not an elimination match.
- It was extremely satisfying to eliminate our perennial opponent, Mexico, but they were not a highly-ranked team.
As you can see, this was indeed our Greatest Victory!
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