Most sports fans – certainly World Cup fans – have seen that awww-inspiring YouTube video that surfaced last week, showing Americans around the globe celebrating Landon Donovan’s last-second goal to beat Algeria and send Team USA to the next round.

The video showed what happens on the increasingly more rare occasions these days when people unite behind one cause – the feeling of camaraderie, in this case patriotism, that can be created by a single event.

Even non-soccer fans and casual observers like myself were moved by the excitement and hope Donovan had created with that goal.

Of course, the Americans were eliminated in the next match, and just like that it was over.

As Stephen Colbert said, “Big news from World Cup Soccer: We don’t have to care about it anymore.”

And then there was David Letterman: “The Russian spies tried to blend in. They were acting like Americans. As a matter of fact, for two weeks, they were pretending they loved soccer.”

While that has generally been the sentiment of most Americans, there are some who really do love soccer all of the time, and they take hope from moments like the one Donovan provided that soccer will become a more widely supported sport in the United States.

In that spirit, one of my soccer friends, known at OTPB as The Dink, penned this passionate e-mail essay to me on the sport that has been front and center even in the United States this month.

His first sentence was addressed to me, but it might as well have been addressed to Colbert, Letterman and so many of the non-soccer sports fans in America who favor football, baseball, basketball and even hockey over the world’s most popular sport.

Without further ado, here’s The Dink’s take:

I know you probably don’t care as much, but I love the World Cup.  It’s the only true world championship in existence.  When you win the World Cup, you are truly the world champion.  You can’t say that about the NFL, NBA or MLB.  Although the NBA Finals drew massive ratings this year, nobody outside the U.S. could give a crap about Boston vs. L.A.  And when the U.S. goes against another team in the World Cup, the whole country is cheering them on, including fans in Boston, L.A., Miami, Seattle, etc.  And the rest of the world pays attention to the result. 

We’re a country that put a man on the moon, believes in manifest destiny and wants to be second to none in everything we do. Yet, when it comes to soccer, we make every excuse in the book instead of admitting we’re second rate: “It’s boring (was Donovan’s goal boring?), the players flop (watch an NBA game lately?), the games end in a tie (so what? Only the championship matters), and our sports are better (but they’re diluted by boring regular seasons, long playoff series, and over–commercialization).” 

I just don’t get why we have our heads in the sand on this one, and why we can’t raise the bar and win the damn thing. 

It’s embarrassing.  Just turn on Germany vs. England to see what soccer can really be. I mean, those teams are brilliant the way they move the ball and make the most difficult play look effortless. It blows my mind – it’s like watching the Harlem Globetrotters using their feet.  And yet Americans are bored by this? Bored or ignorant? It’s like somebody saying they don’t like chess, but they don’t have a clue how to play it.

I heard a commentator say that soccer won’t catch on in the U.S. until the MLS starts paying their players millions of dollars and kids start dreaming of playing professional soccer instead of a scholarship opportunity. I agree. I think the MLS is going in the right direction, but they have a ways to go both in terms of salary and quality of play. 

There’s room to grow – people are disillusioned with overpaid NBA players and MLB players on steroids. The NFL has a good thing going, but it’s difficult to top the Super Bowl, which is the most entertaining event of the year but doesn’t hold a candle to the passion people around the world have toward the World Cup final.  And now that we’re in a recession, the idea of cheap soccer tickets makes sense.

So I’m hopeful.  I just wish the ordinary Joes out there would get their heads out of their butts and stop making idiotic excuses for lack of understanding.