BRENT LATHAM – Here’s the thing. It’s so easy for American fans to be happy that Giuseppe Rossi will not be going to the World Cup this year with Italy.

It’s probably best for U.S. soccer this way. Rossi, who is in his prime at 23 and may never get the chance to play in a World Cup – though retirement age for an Italian soccer player is a good three or four years later than most nationalities – immediately becomes the cautionary example for other extremely talented young dual-national American soccer players. Choose that other country if you want, they’ll say, but you may never play in a World Cup.

Now I’m going to say something you may have to just trust me on.

This will never be an issue again. It’s not that the U.S. will never lose another talented dual-national – we’re well on our way to losing a few right now – but by 2014, and even moreso eight years from now, the player pool will be deep enough that we won’t feel these losses nearly as much.

Rossi is a different case. What’s sad about this story for the U.S. is the waste of it all.  This year, in South Africa, if you add Rossi (and let’s throw in Subotic for the hell of it) to the U.S. squad, you’re probably talking about a team that has a little better than even odds of making the quarterfinals instead of looking at that as a near best-case scenario.

Instead Rossi will watch from – well I really don’t know where he’ll be watching the World Cup, but I’m sure it will be comfortable and there will be nice looking women there and probably some pasta.

That said, what does it serve a U.S. fan to feel happy that Rossi is out? By all reports he’s a great guy, one who just lost his father, but still a kid who’s living his dream. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

And hate that Rossi’s talent won’t be on display in South Africa, for the U.S. or Italy. That is the epitome of waste.

What about you? Are you still glad Rossi missed out? Still wondering what a Rossi-Altidore combination would have looked like for the next two or three World Cups?

by Brent