Jonathan Mahler, Columnist

U.S. Soccer Team Swims With Alligators

December 6, 2013 at 8:03 PM UTC

Jonathan Mahler is a sports columnist for Bloomberg View. He is the author of the best-selling "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning," the basis for the eight-part ESPN mini-series. He also wrote "The Challenge," the winner of the 2009 Scribes Book Award, and "Death Comes to Happy Valley." A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine and the Times Book Review, Mahler has written for numerous other publications including the Washington Post, Slate, the New Republic and New York magazine. He lives in New York.

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Is it better to be lucky or good?

The U.S. Men's National Team will find out soon. The team was lucky last time, in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, when it was grouped with England, Slovenia and Algeria. It still took the U.S. until the 90th minute of its third game to advance -- on a rebound off the Algerian goalkeeper.