After Monday’s debacle against the Czech Republic, I seriously considered writing another fortune.com column using the World Cup to make exactly the opposite point as last week’s plea for U.S. optimism in the face of globalization.

Landon Donovan was too much of a wimp to stick it out at Bayer Leverkusen and learn how to be tough rather than just talented, I could have written. DaMarcus Beasley’s lack of worldliness is dooming him to second-rate status at PSV and has halted his development as a soccer player. We Americans can’t hack it in a world that doesn’t revolve around us. Those Czechs, meanwhile, all have to go abroad and learn new languages if they’re to get anywhere in the sport. They’re the ones who are ready for globalization. Or something like that. That’s the great thing about opinion journalism. Starting with a given set of facts, you can make almost any point you want.