Team USA Gets No Respect...Still

(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Plus, the US is known for our goaltenders. Tim Howard for the men and Hope Solo for the women are two of the best in the world. (My Dutch friend says its because Americans aren't afraid to stick their noses where they don't belong...gotta love the political undercurrent of this game!)

Germany (3) would roll over them but I think Germany is going to win the whole thing next summer...easily.

My point is, on the one hand, people say that rankings don't matter.  On the other hand, if you say the US is as good as Russia or Croatia, they say "But Russia and Croatia are the 8th and 9th ranked teams in the world!"

Or they say the Confederation Cup doesn't matter. (The hundreds of Brazilian fans dancing in the streets of San Francisco yesterday might disagree).

Or they say the USA was just lucky (Which sport doesn't involve some luck?)

Or they say Spain and Brazil didn't try very hard and the USA snuck up on them. Of course, it was an upset. No-one, including the players on Team USA, was claiming that the USA wasn't the underdog.

So, what does it take to get respect? I dont know but here are some thoughts.

If winning the World Cup is the only thing that matters, then there are many teams in the world who are simply "capable of getting results" just like the USA and should not be considered "elite". The current #1 and #2 ranked teams in the world, Spain and Holland, are included in this category.

Obviously, this isn't the case. Spain and Holland are considered elite teams, as they should be.

If winning the World Cup is the true measure, then consider this:

Only seven nations have ever won World Cups since it began in 1930, some more than once (Uruguay, Italy, Germany, England, France, Argentina, and Brazil).

That leaves 195 FIFA nations who have never won, including top ranked teams such as Spain (1), Holland (2), Croatia (8), Russia (9) Portugal (11), Greece (12) Paraguay (13), and the USA (14).

If beating the best team in Africa and the best team in Europe and leading the best team in South America 2-0 for 50 minutes doesn't get you any respect, what does?

You're currently logged into Facebook

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