So The Yankees Play Who Next Week?

The much-hyped, much bally-hooed United States soccer team has just been eliminated from the World Cup in the group stage. That's right, the same team that 'officially announced' they've arrived on the international scene lost in a blow out to the Czech Republic, a game they barely showed up in, and showed zero consistency in a 2-1 loss to Ghana.

A phantom call by the referee resulting in a penalty kick and a goal for Ghana didn't help, but the U.S. ultimately shot themselves in the foot - I watched as they blew chance after chance to tie the match up. Out of all three matches, the U.S. showed up for one, playing incredible football against perennial world power Italy, but overall, this will go down in history as a terribly managed American team, led none other than by American football trailblazer, Bruce Arena. But hey, 1-3 ain't bad, right?


Landon Donovan was doing plenty of this in the 2006 World Cup

As the U.S. is eliminated from the World Cup, America can go back to what we do best - no, not policing the world with our policies - being completely apathetic about soccer as a sport. Ghana, a country with the combined population of Illinois and Iowa, defeated a nation with limitless resources and 300 million citizens - we're supposed to care about soccer again, why? You don't think if we devoted all our resources and citizens, if we abolished all other sports and cared as much about soccer as those European hooligans, that we couldn't dominate the world scene? Of course we could. We just don't care.

Unfortunately for its fans, soccer will never take off in the United States. We have an overabundance of major sports as is (looking at you hockey fans - all four of you), you think there's room for another? The Playstation Generation demands instant gratification, fast paced, fury-driven madness, and flashy shows of dominance. The major 4 American sports already provide all that and, most importantly, in a more convincing, culturally embedded and readily available fashion than soccer.

So soccer fans, prepare yourselves for another four years of relative quiet, only gaining a mention on Sports Center because of the MLS championship game - maybe - and another patriotic burst of attention in 2010. Until then, what do you think the Yankees chances are of another AL East title?