1. Ann Coulter‘s recent column declaring American interest in soccer to be a sign of American moral decay is inane.

2. Claims that soccer is somehow a purer expression of sport than any other are equally inane.

3. It is true that there are too few scoring opportunities in soccer for present American tastes. What this means is best summed up by some ancient Roman wisdom: “De gustibus non est disputandum“.

4. Current World-Cup rules, like no overtime in the 1st round, create a lot of ties. This is not a fundamental problem with soccer — the NHL has over the years tinkered with its rules in order to limit the number of ties — but for any sporting endeavor, a high likelihood of ties can create competitive issues on the field and dampen the interest of spectators.

5. Two of the previous five World Cup final-matches have been determined by penalty kicks, which is a dud of a way to end the world’s best tournament in a sport. Especially in a world-class championship showcase, as many games as possible should be played until a winner is determined under normal rules.  IMHO, loosening up soccer’s substitution rules would be a reasonable way to allow more big matches to be determined by actually playing soccer until one team wins, without changing anything fundamental about the sport.

6. Go USA.