A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

Well, if you didn't, you do now. And the United States is doing very well in it--with very salutary results for the American team:

The United States men's soccer team, fresh off three straight first-round shutout victories in the Concacaf Gold Cup, is riding an eight-game unbeaten streak under the team's new coach, Bob Bradley.

Though the Americans have not faced the same international competition they did last summer at the World Cup, FIFA has taken notice. The United States moved up 13 places to No. 16 in the monthly ranking of the world's soccer teams.

The U.S. team, on the heels of its first-round elimination from last summer's World Cup in Germany, had plummeted to No. 31 in the FIFA rankings last November after rising to an eye-popping No. 4 in April 2006, only two months before the start of the World Cup. Bruce Arena, the United States national team coach at the time, scoffed at the lofty status bestowed on his team by FIFA, but was concerned that it artificially raised expectations before the World Cup.

Let's not artificially raise expectations again, but this is good news for the American team and hopefully will turn more people on to American soccer.

Meanwhile: Go USA! Bring back that Gold Cup!