Even if the US soccer team lost at the World Cup. It was a big win for us because for a short time soccer was a hit in US. More people were watching soccer than may be even the Yakee games.

Write about the games, about the people there, about the contentious and harmonious moments. But don't make it seem like your blogging about your vacation! A few more paragraphs about the atmosphere and a few less about the beers you were drinking would help immeasurably.

I'm all for you shooting the L'Ess gifted writers some World Cup spending money, but really:

"'Vaya Con Dios' sang the Argentine to a clutch of Serbian (or Montenegrin) fans as they walked down the pedestrian-only concourse leading from the Gelsenkirchen Hauptbonhof (train station). It was a fitting, and perhaps necessary, blessing given what was to transpire between the footballing representatives of these two (recently three) countries later in the day."

[punctuation yours]

Sure, it's my favorite of any paragraph I've read in Salon, but three pages of this? Subscribers must be beating a path to your door.

There were plenty of American fans in Germany who actually attended US matches and wouldn't have had to report on them from beach clubs hundreds of miles away. BigSoccer.com is hosting blogs from a number of U.S. fans and independent fan sites like whoateallthefries.com are as well.

Also, your writer makes mention of the tiresome "U! S! A!" chant as the only one used by American fans, but that wasn't even close to true. I attended the U.S. matches in Gelsenkirchen and Kaiserslautern and, while the USA chant did occur, other songs and cheers were much more common. (I was particularly amused at the "bullshit" chant, which I've heard most commonly as a protest at college football games, being used to great effect as a response to Italy's gamesmanship. US goalkeeper Kasey Keller was even clapping along to that rhythm.)

Maybe the USA should change the name of this sport to "world football" (as opposed to "American football")? At any rate, the USA will never get anywhere with soccer until it is not only the children of "soccer moms" who play soccer, but poor inner-city children as well.

Pavel Nedved (whom many have rightly noted is a dead ringer for a "Roadhouse"-era Patrick Swayze)

Swayze? If anyone, Nedved could double for a Beach-Boys-era Roman Polanksi.

Msr. L'Official you are correct in your assessment of the national team's performance, especially the need for a stronger mid-fielder in the mold of Makelele or even Essien. Alas, I fear that even the American fans need more footballing education, as evidenced by the absurd comment on Mexican immigration. I would hope that eventually the antipathy toward the sport by the major sports news outlet (read: ESPN)will lessen to a level of at least non-condecension when mentioning match results. One thing is certain, Julie Foudy is the most intelligent American footballing analyst on television. She has been the brighter side of this World Cup for those of us not as fortunate to be in Germany this summer.

With all the Mexican immagrants in this country can't we field a superior soccer team?