Losses in perspective

I woke up on Sunday excited about gathering up some friends to watch the US-Brazil Confederations Cup Final. After the epic win against Spain, this was must-see. Could the US repeat their '98 Gold Cup upset, or would we have a replay of the group stage match?

My plans changed right as I was about to jump in the shower. My older brother called, telling me that my dad had just been taken to the hospital after collapsing at home. He wasn't sure if he had a stroke or a seizure. I jumped in the car and drove as fast as I could to the hospital, not knowing what I would find when I got there. I've never been so scared in my life...

Luckily, the first thing I heard when I walked into the emergency room was my dad's voice. I knew he was at least okay enough to speak. He was pretty banged up from the fall and we were all definitely scared about what happened. We waited for the doctors to go over tests and tell us what the next step was.

While we were waiting, I started getting text messages. Dempsey had scored early, US was up 1-0. Then, Donovan made it 2-0 and none of us could believe it. My dad knew nothing about soccer before I started playing, he had coached baseball and football for years. When I fell in love with it, he did too. Now, he watches any games that are on and calls to talk about things like why Beasley is still in the lineup.

The doctor came in to tell us that she wanted to keep my dad overnight for observation and to do more tests. Now, we were just waiting on a room to open up to get my dad out of emergency. He told me to go watch the second half and to tell him what happened.

Now, we all know how that second half went, so I won't get into it. The best thing I can say is the disappointment didn't hurt me as much now that my dad was okay. As much as these games mean to us, you realize it is just a game once it's put into the proper perspective. Now, once we got my dad home and talked about the game, we were in a different mood...

Thanks for indulging me with this one. I guess more than anything I wanted to thank my dad for supporting and encouraging me when it comes to soccer and anything else I wanted to do. It's amazing what it takes to make you realize how lucky you are.