O'Hehir and other readers have wondered why US youngsters are not pursuing the sport in greater numbers. But there is no need to wonder, for soccer is a World sport. How do the Italians do it? How do the French do it? How do the Dutch, Brits, Brazilians, etc. do it? There is plenty of material for study here; it should be no mystery. Perhaps this reluctance to look beyond our own shores for the solution is part of the problem: If it's not invented here, we're not interested. So we fumble clumsily along, expecting to succeed simply by virtue of being American.

To succeed, we need to bring our soccer programs under the same roof, and we need to make them universally accessible (talent and economic condition do not correlate). In this country, for example, we have youth soccer behemoths like the AYSO, who are independent of, and often work at cross-purposes with, the US Soccer Federation (and by extension, FIFA). Their goal is not to produce youth talent, but to produce youth recreation. Scholastic soccer, at the high school and the NCAA level, also are independent of USSF and FIFA, tinker with the rules in bizarre ways, and don't provide enough "ball-time" and are not universally accessible to all. So there is no continuity, no common purpose. The youth player cannot get into a track that will lead him to the highest levels. Instead s/he must hop about looking for what opportunities s/he can find. Many will be discouraged. Rich families can afford expensive academies, of course, but most of the talent pool is not to be found among the upper class.

In Europe, things are different. One can join a local soccer club, which is most likely affiliated with a professional level club. One can play within that club's system from childhood up to "veteran" level. If one is good, the club will take interest in developing your talents further, for it is in their interest, or the interest of the professional level club, to do so. All this is done under the auspices of the country's Football Association (FA). This infrastructure also provides the experienced coaches and referees needed to provide the environment for players to develop. (Watch Bend It Like Beckham for an idea of how this works. Think also of the AAA, AA and A affiliates of the Major League Baseball clubs for an example of a similar system in the US.)

Can we do this here? Not yet. We simply don't have the infrastructure of professional clubs in this country. MLS have only 12 franchises, and they don't have the extensive network of clubs and academies that European clubs have. The next level down is USL, and they are comparable to the Regional leagues in England, already 5 or more levels down from their Premier League. England, on the other hand, have some 70-80 professional clubs in their first four divisions, all in a geographical area some 70 times smaller than the US! It's simply going to take time for us to develop the required infrastructure to seriously compete in the World Cup.

King's reasoning is right on the mark. Diving works because referees are too quick to punish a perceived foul, incorrectly basing their decision solely on the reaction of the fouled player. So if FIFA now starts punishing provocation based on the reaction of the retaliating player, retaliation itself will be simulated.

As for Zidane's explanation, how very disappointing. If what he says is true Materazzi was guilty of nothing more than engaging in the petty trash talking that takes place in countless sports leagues all over the world. All of us who have played in any organized team sport beyond the youth level have experienced this little mind game at some point or another. To take it personally, especially when one knows full well that the provoker knows nothing about your mother, is simply stupid.

To those who think the referees committed some nefarious act, relax. Luis Medina Cantalejo, the 4th official of the match, has stated that he saw the incident in real-time. I see no reason not to take him at his word. No FIFA rules on the use of replay were violated.

That stated, I'd like to see FIFA use video replay after-the-fact (not during games!) to punish player misconduct, to include obvious diving. You might fool the ref, but if you know you have video evidence, in slo-mo no less, maybe you won't dive.

Bush's comments show how remarkably short-sighted, partisan and ignorant the man is. Hezbollah and Israel are doing the tango, and as we all know, it takes two (see Rami G. Khouri's recent article in Salon). And I suppose somewhere someone (Bashar al-Assad say) could just as easily say (perhaps with his mouth full, and perhaps more truthfully): "What they need to do is get the US to get Israel to stop doing this shit and it's over."

So then, it's murder if it is federally funded, but it's OK if it is done in the private sector. Well, at least the man is consistent in his own perverse, bizarre way.