Over and Done With

NUREMBERG, Germany — When traveling abroad into the heart of the soccer world, the only thing worse than being an Ugly American is being an Ignored American. That describes the U.S. soccer team. A non-factor here in\o7 \f7a \o7Fussballland\f7 obsessed with its home team, enthralled with Brazil and cautiously observant of England. The Unites States is the smallest big nation here.

I've seen this played out during the World Cup, from souvenir stores that don't stock U.S. gear to, most ominously, a lack of respect from officials on the field. It all manifested in a horrible call that became the turning point of the U.S. team's 2-1 loss to Ghana Thursday, a defeat that ended the U.S. tournament run and sent Ghana to the round of 16 in its World Cup debut.

Plenty of soccer people -- and you can count U.S. Coach Bruce Arena among them -- believe that the star system exists in World Cup officiating. That's bad news for the U.S., which isn't a star team and doesn't have any star players. (In the U.S. they might try to push Landon Donovan as a star; here in Germany he's remembered as the guy who couldn't cut it in the Bundesliga).

So during stoppage time in the first half with the score tied, 1-1, and the ball headed toward the U.S. penalty area, Oguchi Onyewu knocked it away as Razak Pimpong slid underneath. Apparently referee Markus Merk thought things were a little too hard out there for Pimpong, and he gave Ghana a penalty kick. U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller guessed left, Ghana's Stephen Appiah shot right and the Black Stars had the winning goal.

"That's a big call, by the way," Arena said for the benefit of us soccer neophytes.

"We had control of the game, we go in halftime down a goal. Those things happen. They happen a lot to our team, but those things happen."

They're going to keep happening as long as the U.S. isn't considered a credible threat to win the World Cup.

The U.S. should have known trouble was brewing when Merk was assigned this game. Australia is still fuming that its team received only nine free kicks to Brazil's 25 on Sunday, when Merk worked that match.

The Brazilians are the big-time rock band here, the U2 in this piece -- right down to the single-named stars. All you need to know about the respective places in this universe was that Ghana's Michael Essien told Appiah: "We have to show Brazil who we are." He said this in the hours \o7before\f7 the U.S. game the Ghanaians had to at least tie to get a chance to play Brazil. It was as if they had nothing to prove against the Americans -- and nothing to fear, either.