WHAT THE FK?????

Football (soccer type)

Incredible. Just incredible.

Spain is BY FAR the best team in the world. 35 wins in a row. Hasn't lost since November 2006.

USA was packing bags to go home a few days ago. Lost 3-1 to Italy, 3-0 to Brazil. Needed 3-0 win over Egypt and Brazil to beat Ital 3-0. Never going to happen. Except it did.

This may be one of the biggest upsets of all times.

The ONLY way it would be bigger is if it happened in the World Cup instead of the Confed Cup.

Thanks jb, that's what I bet on!

Oh, and it wasn't a fluke. The USA played really well, and defended incredibly well.

YOU BET USA to BEAT SPAIN? What kind of odds did you get?????

I'm not sure, I don't think spain were really up for it.
Not saying it wasn't a very good USA performance, but I don't think we saw grade A spain. The number of games some of their team have played in the last year is ridiculous. I can't remember the figures and I won't make them up, but Xavi has played most of the matches for Barca, including the Champions League final.
Moreover, after such a high-pressure finish, it must be hard for them to take the Conf Cup seriously?
Now I'm not going to use the normal line of "not to take anything away from the USA" because that's exactly what I'm doing. They played well and despite generally being made up of players from clubs in the second (or lower!) tier of European football, they're a very good team. They very nearly put up this sort of performance at the last world cup.
One to watch next summer though...

Oh, I agree Spain wasn't 100%. If Spain were 100%, they win this game. But they didn't think the USA was going to show any kind of fight, and for the first 40+ minutes they simply didn't bother to play. By the time they started attacking, USA was able to absorb the pressure. The 2nd goal was a counter. So the USA outplayed the Spanish this one time.

"YOU BET USA to BEAT SPAIN? What kind of odds did you get?????"

I was just continuing the joke. The odds would be hilarious.

Man, I'd be rich. =/

Gods, just think what kind of odds a bookmaker would have given.

My posts don't make much sense until you realize that what jbalcorn said made absolutely no sense to me... I assumed what he said was a joke. Man. So ridiculous I thought you were joking. =(

According to "the Internet," the odds were:

Confederation Cup odds at SBG Global have Spain -1.5 (-120) against the USA +1.5 (-120) with a Draw +350 and a betting total of 2.5 OVER -130 in soccer odds.

I have never bet on soccer, so I don't really know what that all means.

Wow, looking at the post-game statistics Spain had 29 shots, and 8 were on-goal. In contrast, USA had 9 shots, of which only two were on goal, both of which scored.

Odd. ESPN has the US listed as taking only 4 shots.

espn is wrong i was only half watching the game and i saw more than 4 shots

Sportingbet.com paid 9 to 1 on a USA to win bet. Considering how often there are upsets in soccer, those are HUGE odds. Most placs had it -450 which meant that you had to pay $450 to win $100 on a Spain bet, so a USA bet paid 4.5:1.

Chris: You really thought I was kidding?

Oh christ can you not put the odds in proper terms? 9-1 sounds very generous to me (it is a two-horse race, after all). Spain were 2-9 (or 9-2 on) favourites, which should, if all things were fair in the land of the bookmaker, mean that the USA would be 9-2. BUT the bookies never make the odds equal evens, so you wouldn't have got 9-2 if Spain were 2-9.

"Considering how often there are upsets in soccer" - not that often really...

I thought Spain actually played pretty well. They really should have won 5-2. I lost count of Howard's saves and the number of blocked shots by Demerit and Oguchi. For as awful a game that Ricardo Clark had, those three guys more than made up for it.

Bradley, too. That red card was harsh and we're going to miss them. Unfortunately, Brazil (assuming that there isn't another huge upset today) isn't going to be taking the US lightly. They're going to smash them.

9-1 is very generous, that was one website. Most websites were -450, i.e. 4.5:1, or 9-2.