Does the Nashville Faliure Mean Nothing? Jacob Hart

By now, everyone has either seen or heard about the debacle that was USA vs. Morocco last night, and most have made up their mind one way or another: either it meant absolutely nothing, or we've gone 88 mph back to 1998. I'm not sure it's either one of those, but I am leaning towards the more panicked crowd - I guess it's in my nature.

I'm sure Coach Arena is trying to get the most out of his players, and some of them looked good: Convey played very well, and seems to be even more confident after leading Reading to the Premiership. Onyewu is a machine, but he's going to have to get used to refs being biased against him for being big. I was all excited to see Dempsey get into the game, because I thought he would bring some spark to a lineup that didn't seem to want to play... but he didn't do it.

What were they doing out there?! The players that didn't have the ball did not move. They didn't do anything but watch. When a player got the ball, he seemed put out that he then had to make some sort of move! Some say "You gotta give credit to Morocco for coming out and really trying to win." No. No you don't. You don't give credit to a team who tried to win. Every team should try to win, that should be a given. You give credit when someone makes an incredible effort like playing through an injury or sacrificing themselves for the good of the team.

And true, it means nothing for any tournament or standings... but top teams don't lose to bad teams with their World Cup squad. And despite Arena's attempts to squeeze some effort from them, I think the problem is that they don't know how not to be underdogs.

Eric Cantona is telling us that the world no longer looks forward to playing us. Gatorade is advertising the team. Sportscenter is even talking about soccer, for Pete's sake! The Americans are on top of the FIFA rankings (please read Deuce's excellent article), and they feel like they have arrived. They have nothing to prove. And that's just what they did: prove nothing.

As I vented earlier to anyone that would listen: If our World Cup team can't take care of Morocco at home, how in the world are they going to deal with the Italians, the Czechs, and the Ghanians once they get to Europe? Call me a pessimist, or unpatriotic (which I'm not, I'll be cheering our boys on with all my heart), but I don't see us getting out of the Group of Death. Italy looks very strong, as long as the Serie A scandal doesn't ruin their team, the Czechs are going to punish anyone the Moroccans can, and Ghana won't be an easy task either.

Real Salt Lake might have to find room for Pope in the starting lineup sooner rather than later.