(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

The USA men's football team recently beat Spain, the No. 1 ranked team in the world and, yesterday, gave the No. 4 ranked team in the world, Brazil, a serious run for its money; leading 2-0 for the first 50 minutes of a 90 minute contest before finally succumbing to intense Brazilian pressure and losing.

Final Score: Brazil 3 USA 2.

The 'Net is awash with commentators trying to denigrate this team's accomplishments.

Mostly its just typical anti-American hate, but some of it is semi-intelligent criticism that, at least, is focusing on the game and not on American foreign policy blunders or other historic political mistakes by long dead Americans. (Welcome to World Cup Football, baby.)

"The USA was lucky. Spain and Brazil weren't trying hard. The Confederation Cup doesn't matter.", they say.

In short, to quote Rodney Dangerfield, Team USA don't get no respect.

I have been a World Cup football fan since 1990, when my German girlfriend and I decided on a whim to drive from Frankfurt to Rome for the 1990 World Cup. We had no tickets and we had no hotel reservations but we drove to Italy in her Volkswagen Golf and had an absolute blast.

We watched the matches from pubs and I was hooked. Germany won that year and I have been a World Cup fan ever since.

I still don't consider myself a "soccer fan". I don't care about the LA Galaxy or the English Premier League or the MLS or any of it.

But, the World Cup? I'm an addict. Great athletes, drama, sports, politics, history, war, peace, drinking, half naked Brazilian women, what's not to love?

So, here are my comments on the USA's incredible run to the Finals in the Confederation Cup this past week.

The USA is currently ranked 14th out 202 FIFA nations. That's about right, in my opinion.

Arguably, they could rise past Paraguay (13) and Turkey (12) or drop to around 26th behind Mexico (25). There are some good teams between 10 and 25 and the USA is one of those teams. It should be noted that NONE of the teams in this tier are considered serious threats to win the World Cup next summer but there is always one team (Cameroon in 1990, for example.) that makes a deep run despite the expectations or rankings.

Is the US Team Top 10?  Probably not. Despite their upset of Spain (1) in the Confederation Cup,  Portugal and France are currently ranked at 10 and 11 and the USA should not be considered higher than them at this time. If they beat a team like France or Portugal in the World Cup, they could (and should) move into the Top 10.

That said, the USA is a hard working, gritty team with lots of heart.  They don't have the one "superstar" player yet (though Landon Donovan's play against Brazil yesterday was stellar). However, they have a good, solid team that, when playing together, is a force to be reckoned with.

I'm not sure other top 10 teams like England, Croatia, or Russia would want to play them next summer. They will never fully dominate play or lead in time of possession against a team like Brazil or Spain, but they can strike quickly on counter attacks and they play great defense. 

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?