I was knocked out by the "Hand of God" in 1986 and the USA must feel they were stopped in their tracks by a similar fate in the Far East.
But to debate whether it was ball to hand or hand to ball on the German goal line in the quarter-final takes away from the USA's achievement.
Americans aren't supposed to like football - sorry "soccer" - let alone be able to play it, but they reached the quarter-finals playing some great stuff.
And they took the bull by the horns straight away in their opening match against Portugal. A goal after four minutes and 3-0 up half-an-hour later.
They bounced back from a mauling against Poland to beat Mexico with a mature performance and they dictated the last-eight meeting against Germany.
Who knows where it will end if they can build on this. They've got the money to build an infrastructure for success, and now it looks as if they've got the players too.