The unbelievable USA run at the World Cup ended today in an exciting match against Germany.

The USA team played well, I thought. They made a solid showing. Unfortunately, their finishing was only "good", not "great", as in "it went in the goal." An inch here, a post there, a forearm in just the wrong place...

The millions of kids who play youth soccer in the US, plus the MLS, plus a little time has made the US team a legitimate side in international play. We'll still have a vast majority of Americans who don't like professional soccer, and we'll still have other countries who think we don't deserve to have a good team because of that.

Getting to the quarterfinals of the World Cup isn't winning, but it's certainly not losing. Many American sports fans don't think of competition that way. There has to be a winner and a loser.

I imagine that most people who enjoy soccer understand that the US team had a winning performance at this year's World Cup.