So there we were in Amsterdam at the Adidas store on the Leidestraat. I was looking at some of their World Cup stuff—a Holland shirt with “TOTAL FOOTBALL” on the back had caught my eye—and the same rack had an England shirt with the words “Pickles—The Dog Who Saved the Cup” and a line drawing of a terrier with the World Cup trophy in his mouth. I was explaining to my wife that Pickles was the dog who found the trophy after it had been stolen and then abandoned before the ’66 cup.

Meanwhile, my wife pointed out a young clerk, whom I hadn’t noticed, who was repeatedly addressing me in Dutch. I turned to him and said hello in English and he quickly switched languages to ask if he could help me. “No thanks,” I said. “I’m just looking.”

He was momentarily stunned. “Wait—are you American? And you know the story of Pickles?” I said yes to both questions. “Are you a soccer fan?” He continued to seem stunned, which I guess made it a long moment.

I pulled the end of the Brucesliga scarf off from under my coat (thank you, Rick Brennan, for your fabulous creation) and assured him that yes, there are American soccer fans. We had a very pleasant conversation after that. He even knew that the US was in a group with the Czech Republic, Italy, and Ghana.

Sad to say, he’s been a bit of an anomaly over here. I spoke to a woman in England who was sure that the U.S. had absolutely no chance of doing anything in the tournament (that’s what Portugal thought in 2002, I told her), a man in Amsterdam who guessed that we had a lot of naturalized citizens on the team because not that many people play in the U.S. (none this time, thanks), and an otherwise pleasant Amsterdammer say that he thought it was mainly a girl’s sport in the U.S. (I had to remind him that John O’Brien, who did quite well for the U.S. in 2002 and was on the team again this year, played in this very town for Ajax). The last man and I now talk about soccer, so he's coming around, too.

I'm a bit surprised that more people weren't paying attention to our great run in 2002. Similarly, it seems that only the hard core fans know that we finished at the top in CONCACAF qualifying, ahead of Mexico (who seem to get much more respect over here). It will be interesting to see the attitude in Germany, where everyone will have been watching the 2002 quarterfinal. It seems so far, though, that the only way to win the respect of other footballing nations is to beat them in a big tournament. Let's hope we pull it off again this year.