In taking her dig at the "listless" American performance, San Jose Mercury News columnist Ann Killion focused on the disappointing Landon Donovan, who the media marketed as one of THE potential stars of the World Cup. "For all Donovan did in this tournament, he might as well have stayed in Southern California, hanging with his girlfriend on Manhattan Beach and eating sushi," she said. Donovan has admitted openly to being under-par for the majority of the tournament. ''Too many times I wasn't tuned in enough,'' he said, to which Killion replies: "Well, gee, that's incredibly bad timing. Because for the first time a big chunk of the American public was tuned in. And it witnessed the very public defrocking of Donovan and the concept that one can become a world-class player in Major League Soccer, rather than playing in a top European league." Bruce Arena echoed similar sentiments, saying the U.S. needs to send more of its players to Europe if it wants to compete on the world stage. Perhaps that point will be driven home nowto the players anyway. MLS doesn't cut it on the world stage. Killion said the Americans recent history at the World Cup has shown that they're "an opportunistic group that capitalizes on the rare chance." They weren't handed many of those favors at this tournamentnot by the draw, not by the ref. Their one favor came from the Italians, who had done the least to prepare for playing against the U.S. of the other teams in the group. They weren't going to get any other favors; they would have to pull themselves through by playing quality soccer, which ultimately, they couldn't do.

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