Big win for USA soccer, the goal differential system is fine

First off, great win today for the U.S. men's soccer team. 

I know Egypt was missing key players, and emotionally spent after upsetting the reigning world champion Azzuri. 

But the U.S. got the performance it needed and most importantly help from Brazil (3-0 win over Italy) that makes the win truly mean something.

By advancing in the group, the struggling national team gets two more games on foreign soil against quality opponents. That's the real victory.

Assuming a loss to the best team in the world, Spain on Wednesday, the red, white and blue should get South Africa (the host country) in a third-place game.

For a squad desperately trying to find an identity with less than a year to go before returning to the motherland for the World Cup these games are invaluable to their improvement. 

They may get blown out by Spain but these games give coach Bob Bradley more opportunities to scout his players and figure out his eventual Cup roster.

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Many of the talking heads blasted the system that allows the U.S. to go through over Italy despite losing to them.

But in a three-way tie where each team is 1-2 there has to be another tiebreaker. 

Don't these same critical pundits remember the Big 12 tiebreaker this past college football season?

Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Texas all finished with 7-1 in the Big 12 South. Each was 1-1 against the other two. 

Since there was no clear way to determine who should be awarded divisional champion and a chance to play in the Big 12 championship game the conference had made the next tiebreaker the teams BCS rank.

The Big 12 was killed for pandering to the BCS by making their voting system the next determining factor - and having a game that featured Missouri and Oklahoma - two teams that Texas had both beat.

So in an equal situation - a three-way tie - where each team has lost once and won once against the said opposition - FIFA goes to goal differential.

What else would you do? At least they let it be decided on the field and not by some herky-jerky combination of computer calculations and biased voters.

Let's think these things through before we blast the people who have done just that.