While the US media continues to build up the crisis taking place in the National team ahead of their World Cup qualifiers against Costa Rica and Mexico some solace can be taken from the difficult situation Jurgen Klinsmann's side finds itself in.
At least we are seeing that every US player picked and dropped from the German's squad is desperate to represent their country.
It may seem like a ridiculous statement to make - with every school child who has any love for the game dreaming, at some point in their adolescence, of pulling on their national team's shirt and scoring that World Cup winning goal, becoming a national hero and giving it all for their country - but other nations have struggles to find willing participants to represent their country on the international stage, with England being the obvious example.
This Monday Rio Ferdinand pulled out of the England squad citing his medical reasons as the main factor for his decision to not pull on the white shirt of his country for the 82nd time. The on going back problem that has hampered Rio's fitness appears to be enough to keep him out of international duty against San Marino and Montenegro with the centre back deciding that a disruption to his specific training regime - that he undertakes with his club side Manchester United - could be too detrimental to the remainder of his season.
Few would argue against this statement were there not a cloud of football politics hanging over the England international's head. Rio, as we all remember, was snubbed by Roy Hodgson and left behind as England embarked on their Euro 2012 adventure last summer, with many believing the fall out from the then ongoing John Terry-Anton Ferdinand (Rio's brother) racism sage being the real reason for Rio's absence in Poland and Ukraine.
Whether Rio's withdrawal from England duty this week is a reaction to being left out of last summers squad is a highly debatable matter, but whatever the reason, Rio's absence from the squad is yet another example of an Englishman not being willing to put his body on the line for his country.
Ben Foster spoke, a few weeks ago, of the lack of desire in many English players to represent their nation when Fabio Capello was at the helm.
"At the time it [the England set up] was very very serious with Fabio Capello," said the West Bromwich goalkeeper.
" We weren’t allowed to go out of the hotel and we weren’t allowed visitors and I just felt that a week of ten days away from the family at that age was too much of a big miss. I think the kids are so impressionable at that age and I’m quite a family orientated person anyway so it really did kind of hurt me to be away from them for that time."
Under Fabio it seemed to be a little bit too negative and the press really did stick it to the team," continued Foster who is back in the England for the coming World Cup qualifiers.
"But Roy has brought a lot more optimism and the lads seem really happy to be called up and be involved now.
“You saw so many people pull out of international duty when the previous managers were there, I don’t even know, at times there were 8 or 10 people pulling out of every trip."
Compare this to the comments of Carlos Bocanegra, the US International veteran left out of Klinsmann's 23-man-squad for their Hexagonal round qualifiers this week.
The centre back also posted the following on his Facebook page:
During the last 18 months Jurgen has introduced a lot of new ideas to the team and has a vision of how he wants to grow the program. Every coach around the world has his own style and methods. He has always been up front
with players about where they stand and where he sees them going. Not every player is going to be happy with all of the decisions and methods, but he will tell you to your face where you stand. From a coach, that is the best thing you could ask for. One of the greatest strengths of this team has
always been our unity and spirit, and we all remain committed to the cause of qualifying for the World Cup.
Bocanegra's tweets & Facebook page contain a humble acceptance for his ultimately disappointing absence from the US side this week, but they also show how much it means to US players to represent their nation. Similarly the youngsters called up to the squad have shown an exuberance at being given the opportunity to pull on red white and blue crest of the national team at such an important time for the side.
Yes, doubters and critics are pointing out the flaws in Team USA and the apparent training ground bust ups are not helping the side prepare for Costa Rica on Friday, but are any of them thinking of dropping out of two competitive internationals?
No.
It's an attitude that England could definitely learn from.
World Football Daily
