June 15, 2009 - The United States leads Italy 1-0 in South Africa at halftime. Then the 57th minute comes and along with it a substitute for the losing Italian side, this player immediately makes his mark on the game by scoring a thunderbolt of a goal in the 58th minute, leaving American goalkeeper Tim Howard stranded. This goal changes the entire make up of the game and to finish it all off the same player scores in injury time to ice the game and make it finish 3-1 to the Italians. Now to Americans everywhere with a minor bit of knowledge about world soccer, this seems like a usual result. After all this is the Italian squad that won the World Cup in 2006 only allowing two goals, and these are the Americans who were unceremoniously dumped from the same competition by Ghana.

For sports fans in the United States this was no result to write home about and for the most part the entire competition was unknown in the US until the semi final result against Spain. However for the people that live and breathe American soccer, those two goals in the match versus Italy were daggers straight to the heart of the United States National Team and its fans. You see these goals were scored by Giuseppe Rossi, born and raised in New Jersey. To many US fans this man is now the greatest enemy in the history of United States Soccer, ranking above Torstan Frings and his infamous handball in the 2002 World Cup. Many individuals are seeing Rossi as a traitor to the national team, and ESPN has recently put him on the cover of their self titled magazine, garnering more exposure to the world of soccer and this kind of ability to play for other national teams. This of course will confuse many American fans who only have a passing knowledge in the sport and don't know about the examples that even the United States has benefited from, Stuart Holden and Benny Fielhaber being born in Scotland and Brazil respectively. The real question is if Giuseppe Rossi is in fact a traitor to American Soccer or just another example of a player playing for a country of his parent's birth instead of his own.

If you manage to read the article on Rossi and especially his interviews you understand the background that he was raised in and the circumstances that lead him to declare his soccer nationality with Italy as oppossed to the United States. Born in New Jersey to an Italian born father, he grew up watching Serie A and seeing the likes of Internazionale and Juventus instead of like a usual American child watching American Football or Baseball. This indoctrination would lead to his interest in soccer as well as the Italian League. Even Americans who did manage to watch soccer at the time were mostly focused on the English Premier League, not the lesser known Serie A. The development of his love for soccer and all things Serie A related would lead to his tryout with the youth program at the Serie A team Parma, and his staying in Italy. At this point, the mostly Italian youth in the program would call him "American" and all the while he was missing the usual things American children have growing up, such as Nickelodeon and their cartoons. As time went on he was picked onto a number of Italian National sides, albeit on the youth level, allowing for his allegiance to still be decided. It wasn't until the World Cup in 2006 when the truth of the matter came out about Rossi's future.

At the time the United States were a weakened side trying to recover from the loss of key International veterans and this would ultimately hurt them in their group stage matches and lead to their exit. At the time a player of Rossi's caliber and skill set would have quickly and easily made the jump into the squad and probably the starting eleven. When asked by Bruce Arena about his willingness to play for the US team, Rossi stated that he had always dreamt of playing for Italy and would continue to pursue that. After that cup and the hiring of new national team coach Bob Bradley, Rossi had still yet to be capped at the senior international level by Italy and was approaches again by the US National Team. His response this time was the same and it wasn't long before Italy had capped Rossi and he was playing in the match against the United States and scoring the two goals to win the match.

This I concede is the main reason as to why is it impossible to think of Rossi as a traitor to his nationality. Of course I would much prefer someone of his caliber to suit up in the red, white, and blue, but he never made any claims that he was thinking about joining the USA squad and never led the coaches along. He always wanted to play for Italy and never backed down on that regard. His inclusion in the Confederations Cup match against the United States and his brace on the score sheet are unfortunate, but he has also stated that the United States would be the last team that he would want to score against and that he always roots for the USA, except against Italy. So as a plea to all the American soccer fans out there, please lay of Rossi, if his inclusion onto the cover of ESPN the Magazine helps more Americans to watch the World Cup and enjoy this beautiful game, then I am all for it. And remember we have benefited from this policy in the past and present, and I'm sure we will in the future. Until next time...DTOM!