This is funny. I'm an American, I love my country, and I'm as patriotic as anyone, but people need to get a grip. I'm no soccer expert, but everyone knew we had no chance to win this world cup. Everyone knew we were supposed to be good but nowhere near great. Today, even to the untrained eye, it was pretty clear we played a team that does have a chance to win the cup and is great, and we caught them on a day where we didn't play very well and they played out of their mind. That cross to Koller was disgusting, absolutely perfect, and the goal from outside the box was the goal of the tournament so far. Nothing we can do about that. We lost to a better team. Now we play the Italians. They also are better than us, but maybe we have a good day and they don't on Saturday. Soccer is growing in America, and our team is improving, but anyone who thinks we're even close to being ready is insane. The players on these great teams have been training since they could walk, in the US our developmental system is still getting off the ground. In these countries 80% of the kids play soccer, in the US it's nowhere near that high. As long as people support US soccer it will continue to improve, but to think we're going to erase a 100 year head start by the rest of the world in a decade is pretty unrealistic. Just sit back, enjoy the matches, and hope for the best. That's what I'm doing. And if you get pissed off that we're not the best soccer nation in the world, remember that after this world cup even if we do poorly we're still Americans, and the people in the rest of the world still aren't. That always perks me right up.
Titanic