AL KHOR, Qatar — The chant came from deep in one corner of the stadium, ringing out loud and clear for a few moments before fading back into the general cacophony of the night.
“It’s called soc-cer!” the United States fans bellowed at their England counterparts. “It’s called soc-cer!”
As the United States has seen its soccer culture develop in recent decades, England, a country that prefers to call the sport football and definitely believes it is better than the Americans at playing it, has always served as a reference point.
On Friday night, the United States got a rare opportunity to measure the shrinking distance between the countries’ teams and by most measures performed admirably, scrapping to a scoreless tie that left the Americans holding their World Cup destiny in their hands.