I'm not a big sports person. But I've always wondered why a) Americans do not like soccer as much as people in other countries and b) why America has such a terrible national soccer team.

I was in France for the bulk of the 2006 World Cup, and, upon learning I was an American, few people missed the chance to mock the performance of the US team in that competition. (Recall that the US only managed to tie in its match against Italy when one of the Italian players inadvertently nudged the ball into the Italian goal for the Americans.)

So I must take this moment to congratulate the US team for their remarkable 2-0 victory against top-ranked Spain at the Confederations Cup in South Africa yesterday. It may compel me to actually watch the final round of the Cup later in the week.