So We All Still Love Soccer Now, Right?

Does anyone know when the next USA soccer game is? Because unless it's this Wednesday*, I'm guessing our nation may have trouble parlaying the magical Confederations Cup showing into a nationwide love affair with the sport.

Yes, we are all proud of "our boys" for almost beating Brazil, but if it was any other sport—i.e., one that Americans understood a little better—wouldn't we be lambasting the men's national team for blowing a 2-0 halftime lead in a championship game? I guess this wasn't another " game that changes everything." As long as losing to Brazil is met with shrugs of "Well, they are Brazil" then America is probably going to remain a second-class soccer citizen.

That is just fine, by the way, because according to the American Enterprise Institute, soccer is a socialist sport that rewards undeserving lazy teams, instead of good democratic ones. You see, Gary Schmitt—one of the founders of neoconservative outfit Project for the New American Century—has determined through a rigorous examination of his kids' pee-wee games that better, more dominant teams always lose in soccer, which is why Latin Americans and Europeans (a.k.a., people on welfare) love it so much. The U.S. stinks at soccer because our players don't believe in the redistribution of wins. I feel better already.

The Not-so-beautiful Game [The Enterprise Blog] US takes big strides at Confederations Cup [USA Today] South Africa passes World Cup test [BBC] Confederations Cup: The Excitement Is Unbelieveable! [Goal]

*Actually, the next international match is this weekend in the first round of the CONCACAF Gold Cup (that's the "confederation" the U.S. won in 2007 to get into the Confederations Cup), but the roster will be completely different than the one from Sunday. So we'll see if Saturday's game against Grenada leads SportsCenter that evening.