The U.S. proved to the world that they have both passion and talent for football in the US vs England draw during group play. Two different worlds clashed in remote Rustenburg Saturday night – one with centuries of excellent football history and the other with barely a notable player to name. Of course, the history between the two countries is etched to the minds of every American – Nathaniel Greene vs. Charles Cornwallis, King George vs. Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt vs. Winston Churchill; Monarchy vs. Democracy, Declaration of Independence vs. the Magna Carta; Legendary football players vs. Landon Donovan? For the English, they remember something that most Americans are clueless about, a 1951 crushing upset loss at the hands of the Americans at Wembley Stadium. Revenge was wanted by both sides.

On Saturday, the stacked roster that had a list of dominant players such as Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard meant nothing to the rowdy, passionate U.S. fans draped in American flags entering Royal Bafokeng Stadium “ready to re-win the Revolutionary War” and “increase the football fever catching on back home,” Todd Saunders, U.S. soccer fanatic, said on Saturday night in Rustenburg.

The first sign of the difference in football culture came when our group of study abroad students, waving American flags and yelling U—S— A chants, walked into an all English bar before the game in Rustenburg. A slew of songs about football and the Queen of England seemed like a foreign language to us. Of course, our comments and chants about Landon Donovan and the red, white and blue were met with looks of confusion by the British. However, by the end our time at the bar, after some friendly conversations and banter, respect was granted by the fans of the football giant, England.

Once we entered the stadium, covered in English signs, flags and posters (essentially a home atmosphere for England), the fans of England, known by many to be some of the rowdiest in the world, were by no means overly friendly. Some of our fans were met with all kind of drunken slurs against the U.S. and Obama of all things. Of course, just as Tim Howard, Onyewu and the rest of the U.S. defense stood their ground for the entire 90 minutes, our fans, making up only a portion of the 46,000, stood theirs as well.

When U.S. striker-midfielder Clint Dempsey, loved more by the English than the U.S. for his spectacular play for the English club Fulham, equalized the score near the end of the first half, many of us stood and screamed, “We’re here!!!!!” And indeed, in one of the biggest games in U.S. soccer history, the U.S. had risen to the occasion at the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

When the whistle sounded and a 1-1 draw went into the books, the English fans, hoping to trash the Americans on the football field, were stunned with blank faces. Meanwhile, U.S. fans, cheering constantly and hoping not to get slashed by a very talented English team, smiled with joy at the 1 point result.

Afterwards, U.S. fans met with fellow U.S. fans at the stadiums entrance and danced in a circle to the tuned chant of “Zombie Nation.” English fans, no longer enthusiastic about giving the U.S. some well-deserved respect, scoffed at the “Americans dancing after a tie,” as one disgruntled English fan put it. We continued dancing because we knew our feisty crew had battled the faces of the greatest sport in the world to a wash.

Philip Deutsch