Today in Germany there were a host of articles reflecting how US performs poorly in soccer because of US exceptionalism. Drawing all kinds of political conclusions over sports. Just hillarious. Guess it doesn't occur to many that the Chinese suck at the game more than we do. Must be an example of Chinese exceptionalism.
Then there was the following, which indicates that the reason we don't do better is because we haven't learned how to cheat well enough:
The reason the United States is officially "Going, Going, Ghana!" from the World Cup, as one headline put it memorably Thursday, is simple. It still hasn't bothered to learn how to play the world's game.
Americans don't like their ballplayers taking dives, let alone embellishing them. But that's exactly what Ghana's Razak Pimpong did to buy his team's second goal -- the one that beat the Americans -- at the end of the first half. It happens a half-dozen times in every soccer game ever played.
This time, nudged from behind by U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu in the penalty area, Pimpong went down like he'd been shot. And German referee Markus Merk, one of the best in the world, uncharacteristically bought in. Then Ghana's captain, Stephen Appiah, buried the ensuing penalty kick (for comparison purposes think: free throw) with ruthless glee.
That happens more than it should in soccer, too. But in a game where scoring chances are few, and breaking up a play is much easier than building one, the goal has always been to get them by any means necessary.
Cynical? Certainly. Should it offend our sense of justice? Absolutely. The reward, especially when a player dives, is all out of proportion to the foul.
Bums like michael finley get 20 million to buy out their contracts. Who would wanna play soccer when you can get 20 million dollar buyouts to get kicked off a team? 
