The Confederations Cup: Why We Don't Read About It In The US

The Confederations Cup starts today in South Africa. The teams are from across the world. And it's probably big news in places like Italy, and Barzil, and Spain, and Iran, and Egypt, and certainly in South Africa, all of which have teams in the tournament, but here in the US there's mostly silence. Crickets. Why? Well just take a look at the schedule the US team faces:

6/15/09 at 2:25 pm on ESPN: US v. Italy
6/18/09 at 9:55 am on ESPN2: US v. Brazil
6/21/09 at 2:25 pm on ESPN2: US v. Egypt

This could be yet another a potential national futbol embarrassment. One as gigantic as World Cup 2006, if not larger. The US, a team that was recently shellacked in Costa Rica (#41 in the world) and managed to play a mediocre game against Honduras (#35 in the world), could easily be easily and quickly eliminated in the qualifying round of the tournament. FIFA ranks Italy #4 in the world; Brazil #5; and for reasons I have never understood, the US is ranked #14. Egypt is ranked #40, a position far too low on the list. Put another way, it's possible for the US to lose its first two games in the tournament with a -6 or more goal differential. And it is entirely possible for this team to lose all three qualifying games. Hence the silence. Silence is better, I suppose, than embarrassment.