Talk to a Cubs fan sometime...

Last night the Japanese soccer team took the field for the last time in the 2006 World Cup. Although they successfully advanced in 2002, they drew a much harder group this time. And, somewhat predictably, took a 1-4 spanking from Brazil to finish with two losses and a draw.

Japan is not known for being a sports powerhouse. Oh, sure, the competitive eating circuit is a bunch of fat guys from America's eastern seaboard praying that a tiny woman will finally be able to challenge the unstoppable Japanese five year champ and bring the gluttony title back to the USA. And their women's' wrestling team slammed the crap out of the US on the way to winning their second consecutive world championship. Oh yeah. And there was that baseball thing, wasn't there?

Let's be frank. With the exceptions of Judo, which I'm told they invented, and Women's' Wrestling, which I understand was created on the magical island of Themyscira, Japan has shown its international prowess in primarily American pastimes. Really, was anyone thinking that the Netherlands was holding all its best second basemen out of the majors as an issue of national pride? And is there any other nation on earth that can boast so many people who have enough to eat that they can compete in eating too much?

All of which is to say that it wasn't terribly surprising that Japan's heart-breakingly sincere supporters had their honest hopes of a three-goal victory over Brazil dashed. But what did surprise me was that the recurrent theme on all of this morning's news programs went something like this:

"Just wait 'til 2010."

Japan's coach, Zico, is not sticking around for four years. I'm pretty sure he's going back to Japan just to pick up his already packed luggage. There's no telling how many of the players are going to be in any shape to play again. Really, between now and then, almost anything can happen. But I guess that's what fandom is. "Just wait 'til next time."