There's all kinds of stuff to follow in the meantime. It takes about two years to go through qualifying for a world cup, and even though the US making it through is very nearly a foregone conclusion, traveling to places like Honduras and Guatemala for away matches is pretty intense.

There are also periodic "friendlies" that don't necessarily count toward anything other than bragging rights and a chance to see players. The next US game is against Brazil later this summer.

And every time we play Mexico, "friendly" or not, it is a GRUDGE MATCH, and you should watch.

I'll also say something nice about MLS: it's OUR league. Would you rather support some American kids in Columbus or Kansas City making 30K/year or some team of fabulously wealthy, fashionable Euro superstars you have no connection to? Pick an MLS team and support them and have fun, and don't worry about whether it's the top level or not.

It's not actually a "feel good" story for the US to qualify for the World Cup, since unlike the Dutch we've qualified for six consecutive. Maybe you didn't notice our quarterfinal run in 2002 since the Oranje weren't even in that tournament.

I'm not sure you were really watching the recent friendly, either, since both Dutch goals were gifts from our reserve left back Bornstein, who was deployed experimentally (maybe foolishly?) at centerback for the friendly. As Brian notes above, this guy probably won't even step on the field for us in South Africa.

I understand you're proud of your team, but there's no reason to be so dismissive of ours. We're coming to the World Cup to play some damn ball, and we should expect to advance from our group. We're not great, but we're getting better every year and we're here to stay.

So don't hate. Your glory years are behind you, ours are in front of us.