I saw an interview with Landon Donovan (for those of you who don't know the sport that set up football...well, it WAS football, or soccer) with the US Soccer Nat'l Team set to play in the World Cup this summer. The US team has a nasty qualifying bracket (said by some soccer experts as THE toughtest group) consisting of Italy and the Czech Republic, as well as a Ghana team that not only does no one know much about, but no one really wants to play, either.
To get to the point, Donovan (paraphrasing) said that yeah, their group is very tough, but why not play the best to see who you are, and if you're intimidated or afraid, then why even show up? He said that he knows that the US can win, and that if every other US player feels that way, then they CAN beat these teams.
He's right. NO ONE respects US Soccer...a group that made it to the quaterfinals in 2002 and scared the s--- out of Germany. Does anyone see some similarities here?
If this doesn't speak volumes for NU this fall, then I don't know what does.